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THE DUAL MIND 



BY 

H. L. PAGE 



'Tis the mind that makes the body rich'' 

Shakespeare. 




GREEN LEAF PUBLISHING CO. 
CHICAGO 



Copyright 1909 

BY 

Green Leaf Publishing Co. 
Chicago 



C^A 244562 
AUi ^ 1909 



R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Preface 




7 


Chapter I. 


Introduction . 


* 
• • 9 


Chapter II. 


The Subjective Mind . . 


. . i6 


Chapter III. 


Hypnotism 


. . 29 


Chapter IV. 


Mesmeric Passes . 


. . 36 


Chapter V. 


Hypnotic Conditions . . 


. . 46 


Chapter VI. 


LixMiTS OF Suggestion . 


. . 62 


Chapter VII. 


Telepathy 


. . 79 


Chapter VIII. 


Telepathic Conditions 


. . . 86 


Chapter IX. 


Mind Reading . . 


. . 97 


Chapter X. 


Phantasms .... 


. . 114 


Chapter XI. 


Power to Create Phant^' 


i-SMS . 121 


Chapter XII. 


Subjective Phenomena . 


. . 136 


Chapter XIII. 


Spiritism and Hypnotism 


. . 148 


Chapter XIV. 


Suggestive Therapeutic 


s . . 162 


Chapter XV. 


Subjective and Objectiv 


E Mind 173 



PREFACE 

I DESIRE to take this opportunity to express my 
indebtedness to T. J. Hudson, whose remarkable 
book, ''The Law of Psychic Phenomena," has been a 
model throughout this volume. 

I have drawn largely from the material found in 
^'Suggestive Therapeutics," a book written by Bern- 
heim, whose works are regarded the world over as 
being standard. 

There are many others, but I hope I may cover the 
entire field by saying that I claim absolutely no credit 
for this work save that which is due to an earnest desire 
to place in the hands of those who heretofore have 
been unable to investigate to their own satisfaction a 
subject whose influence has reached the remotest cor- 
ners of the world. 

H. L. P. 



THE DUAL MIND 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 



HUMAN knowledge, pitifully narrow and small, is 
to-day grappling with a problem which promises 
in its results to vastly expand the powers of mankind, 
although at present but dimly understood. Hypnotism 
is no longer theJ plaything of charlatans but a science, 
recognized as such by the highest authorities and 
deemed of such importance that the greatest universi- 
ties of Europe and America have founded chairs for 
its study. 

Mental suggestion in medicine takes its place to-day 
as one of the greatest weapons in the armory of the 
physician. In Paris a great hospital is conducted solely 
along the lines of hypnotic treatment, and the most emi- 
nent doctors of the civilized world willingly adopt and 
countenance methods which a couple of generations ago 
would have branded them as impostors. 

The purpose of this book is to give a broad, general 
view of hypnotism with its allied sciences : what it is, 
what it can accomplish, and what its study may mean 
to the average man and woman. 

The most extraordinary and preposterous claims 
have been put forward for the new science by men who 

9 



lo THE DUAL MIND 

wish to fatten off the credulity and needs of their fel- 
lows. They have unblushingly asserted that the study 
of hypnotism (under their direction, of course) would 
bring their dupes boundless health, wealth, and fame. 

It is hardly necessary to say that neither hypnotism 
nor any other science can fulfil such absurd claims. Nor 
is it necessary to put forward such pretensions to 
demonstrate the wonderful possibilities which lie in this 
little understood subject, or the immense benefits which 
the human race may hope to reap from its study. 

In the first instance let us take disease and physical 
ailments in all their forms. In all ages, under one form 
or another the power of mental suggestion has been 
demonstrated. For centuries the shrine at Lourdes in 
France has been the goal of hundreds of thousands of 
sick pilgrims, and the piles of crutches which are exhib- 
ited there to-day are by no means fraudulent. Innumer- 
able cures were actually accomplished at the sacred spot 
as they have been in many similar places in India and 
other countries Avhere the religion of the people is held 
with uncompromising fervor. Similarly in America 
to-day many people have been relieved by Christian 
Science, Dowieism, and other like creeds. 

Behind them all lies one simple, fundamental fact. 
All their accompHshments have rested solely on mental 
suggestion or hypnotism. In no case does the creed 
or dogma matter. It may be Brahminism, Shintoism, 
Catholicism, or any other "ism;" only one thing is nec- 
essary. The patient must have implicit faith in the 
efficacy of the remedy. In other words, the mind must 
dominate the body. 



INTRODUCTION ii 

How far the power of mental suggestion may go has 
not been definitely determined. It is certain that it 
can accomplish almost miracles in the case of nervous 
diseases, such as paralysis and those far more subtle ail- 
ments which are roughly classified as neuroticism, or in 
simpler English, nerves. It also has proved of incalcu- 
lable value in the treatment of consumption, and even 
has arrested the progress of such insidious and dreadful 
plagues as cancer and tumors. 

This much has been proved and proved beyond all 
reasonable doubt. Hypnotism can alleviate human suf- 
fering to an extent undreamed of hitherto in all the 
science of medicine. 

But there is another and perhaps more important 
realm in which the new science promises to reap a rich 
harvest. Countless men and women are whole in body 
but possess some taint in their mind which forever holds 
them back in the race of life. There is a weakness 
there, a rotten plank which perpetually gives way under 
strain. It is something intangible, indefinable, some- 
thing which marks man from man and is the answer to 
the eternal question of why certain men succeed while 
others, apparently as well equipped, fail. Hypnotism 
promises to bring health to that part of man's wonder- 
ful organism which no drug can ever reach. 

When we say that a man is weak in nine cases out 
of ten we mean that he has no self-control. He is 
under the domination of his emotions and is swayed 
hither and thither, losing ground always in the race 
which is not to the strong but to the direct. In the 
storms of life he drifts rudderless, and although every 



12 THE DUAL MIND 

other part of the ship may be sound it will invariably 
be wrecked. 

There is in man two minds, two selves: the con- 
scious ego and the sub-conscious ego. It is this sub- 
conscious self which hypnotism calls into being, and 
which dominates and remedies the defects which may 
exist in the conscious mind. 

The mists of quackery and charlatanism are clear- 
ing away, and in the light of better, sounder knowl- 
edge the world is learning that many of the things 
which it scoffed at in the dead past are real and 
vital. No matter what may be an individual's personal 
opinion as to the limitations or power of hypnotism 
and its kindred branches, he cannot altogether ignore 
it. It is one of the great problems of to-day, and every 
intelligent man must take an interest in its development 
and possible meaning. 

It is a difficult matter to give a broad and compre- 
hensive view of so broad a subject in the circumscribed 
limits of a single volume. In this instance the difficulty 
has been enhanced by the fact that the subject was one 
which opens the road to wide realms of speculation, 
while the definite truths ascertained are comparatively 
few. However, there is no intention of putting for- 
ward this book as an exhaustive study of hypnotism 
and psychic science. The object has been rather to 
show along general lines what has been accomplished 
and the possibilities that the future holds. 

There can be no question that the study oi mental 
science is the most important of all the branches of 
human knowledge on which a man may exercise his 



INTRODUCTION 13 

brain. Geology, astronomy, chemistry and all material 
sciences are merely stepping-stones to this, the primal 
and greatest of all. The efforts of all the scientists 
and savants of the world have been for all ages directed 
in one direction. They have sought in one way or 
another to fathom the great problem of man's nature, 
to find the possibilities and limitations of his mind. 
Through chemistry we may learn how his body is 
formed and what its functions are, astronomy and 
geology may teach us the age of our race and throw 
a light upon the creation of our earth, but neither 
they nor their kindred sciences can give us any in- 
formation as to the mind which controls the chemical 
body and dominates the earthly sphere. 

The wisest men of all nations and of all times have 
guessed, theorized, and exhausted themselves futilely, 
in the hope of solving, even partially, this greatest of 
all problems. We are yet far from any certain 
knowledge; but there is to be seen in the darkness a 
bright light and that light comes from the study of 
hypnotism. This science, so old and yet so new, has 
taught us much already and promises to teach much 
more in the future. It is old for it has been vaguely 
recognized for many centuries, but it is new for it is only 
within the past hundred years that any attempt has been 
made to study it scientifically and systematically. Up 
to within the past fifty years, indeed, hypnotism has been 
looked upon rather askance by men of science. To-day 
the greatest savants of the world are devoting their 
attention to it, and they do not hesitate to subscribe their 
names to the statement that in hypnotism, and in it 



14 THE DUAL MIND 

alone, is their hope of obtaining definite knowledge con- 
cerning the workings of that mystic force, the mind. 

The first great fact that hypnotism revealed to the 
world was the duality of the mind. This discovery is 
of an importance which can not easily be overestimated. 
It has always been recognized, although never under- 
stood. All religions, pagan or deistic, have taught 
since the earliest times that man has a dual nature. 
They have called it spiritual and physical or by some 
other term; but hypnotism has absolutely established 
that this duality is primarily due to the existence of a 
conscious and sub-conscious mind. 

The old prejudice against hypnotism, although 
rapidly dying out in the face of advancing education, 
still exists to a considerable extent. However, the time 
is approaching when no man or woman who aspires to 
be considered educated, or even intelligent, can neglect 
paying some attention to the science. It means much to 
them personally, for through this study they may come 
to that knowledge of themselves which is the first essen- 
tial to success, and the first requisite to mental and 
physical development. This book will not have failed 
if it will induce some at least of its readers to consider 
seriously a subject which is of so vast importance to 
mankind. 

"Man's best study is man," said Pope, and the poet 
spoke with the inspiration of genius. The man who 
best understands himself first, and then his fellows is 
the one to whom the world offers its fairest prizes and 
life its greatest compensations. Some men are fortunate 
enough to be naturally so strongly psychic that they 



INTRODUCTION 15 

intuitively understand human nature as expressed in 
their associates and companions, but there is no bar to 
any one from cultivating this power to at least some 
extent. 

Every thinking man and woman is profoundly 
impressed at some time or other in their lives by psychic 
experiences. It might be almost said that no person 
reaches mature years without having his life materially 
influenced by the unseen forces which are all around us, 
little recognized or understood. Hypnotism offers a 
theory of the unseen world which does not conflict with 
any known facts. It opens up a wonderful field for 
advancement, and promises the richest rewards for 
those who learn its secrets. 

Hypnotism gives the only explanation, satisfactory 
to the intelligence, of the problem of those titanic 
figures, such as Napoleon and Caesar, who have from 
time to time strode with giant steps across the history 
of the world. It is true that that explanation is neither 
conclusive nor embracive of all the facts, but it has 
thrown the first plain light on the powers and careers of 
these extraordinary men. 

Psychic science has many broad branches and sub- 
divisions. They will be indicated generally in this 
volume, but each has its own separate and extensive 
literature, and the student who wishes to pursue an indi- 
vidual subject further will find a wide field of interest- 
ing and profitable reading. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 

THE phenomenon of the subjective mind is of such 
vast importance that it must be thoroughly studied 
and understood by the student of hypnotism who hopes 
to achieve any mastery of his subject. 

Man has, or appears to have, two minds, each 
endowed with separate and distinct attributes and each 
capable, under certain conditions, of operating inde- 
pendently. These dual minds are respectively objec- 
tive and subjective in their nature and are referred to 
by these titles. 

The subjective mind appears to be a distinct and 
separate entity in distinction to the objective mind 
which is merely a function of the physical brain. The 
former possesses independent powers and has a mental 
organization of its own. It appears to be capable of 
maintaining an existence independent of the body and 
is, in other words, the soul of man. The objective 
mind, on the other hand, possesses no powers or attri- 
butes apart frorn the physical body and is incapable of 
acting independently. In short the one possesses dyna- 
mic force apart from the body while the other does not. 

The line of demarcation between the two is clearly 
defined and their functions are essentially unlike. In 
general terms the differences between the two minds 
may be stated as follows : 

i6 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 17 

The objective mind takes cognizance of the objec- 
tive world and its media of observation are the five 
senses of the physical body. It is the natural out- 
growth of man's physical necessities and his guide in his 
perpetual struggle with his material environment. The 
highest function of the objective mind is its ability to 
reason. 

The subjective mind takes cognizance of its environ- 
ment through means independent of the physical senses. 
It perceives through what we commonly term intuition. 
It is the seat of the emotions and the storehouse of 
memory. Under certain conditions it can be made to 
leave the body and travel to. distant lands, practically 
annihilating distance and bringing back intelligence of 
an exact and truthful character. This phenomenon has 
been observed too often and tested too well to permit 
of any doubt as to its correctness. The subjective mind 
has also the power to penetrate the minds of others and 
read the minutest particulars of their thoughts. This 
is done without the aid of the ordinary objective means 
of communication, such as speaking or writing. 

In the normal condition of a man's life the objective 
mind controls him and governs most of his actions. The 
science of hypnotism deals in reality with the reversing 
of this normal condition. That it to say, it endeavors 
to put the objective mind in abeyance„and_call intO-the^ 
full exercise of its functions the subjective mind- 

The subjective mind to a large extent receives its 
character and education from the objective mind. It 
possesses power of memory O'f its own and when called 
into control will perform the offices pertaining to the 



i8 THE DUAL MIND 

physical body which it has been habituated to through 
the exercise of the objective mind. For this reason it 
presents as marked points of difference in varying indi- 
viduals as are shown by their objective or primary 
selves. A man does not become as the gods, knowing 
the difference between good and evil, simply because 
his objective mind is laid to sleep and his subliminal 
self is topmost. His powers are vastly enlarged in 
certain directions, but he will be also under the limita- 
tions of his primary self. 

The subjective mind may really be termed the life 
principal of the body and its main functions are the pre- 
servation of the human body and the propagation of the 
race. In the exercise of these functions some of its 
most interesting phenomena are to be observed. 

These functions are common to the whole animal cre- 
ation. The first may be subdivided, it is exercised in 
the first place in what is commonly known as the instinct 
of self preservation. In the second place it operates in 
the instinct to preserve human life in general, an instinct 
which is almost as strong as the first. The second func- 
tion is universal and of enormous potency. There is 
no species of animal life so low or undeveloped where 
the instinct of reproduction does not appear and in tre- 
mendous force. This phase of life is too well known to 
call for special attention. It is invariable save for a 
few rare cases where personal idiosyncrasy obviates it 
and then the jondition^und is a diseased and abnormal 
one. 

Where the life of an individual or of his offspring is 
in danger the subjective mind takes prompt possession 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 19 

and governs every act as long as abnormal exertion is 
necessary for the preservation of the imperilled life. 
Innumerable proofs might be given of this phenomenon 
and many of them could be supported out of the personal 
experience of the average man. A man in deadly peril 
frequently exhibits preternatural strength which would 
be impossible under normal conditions. He also dis- 
plays the most marvelous presence of mind and will do 
exactly the right thing at exactly the right time when it 
is obvious that he could not have employed the slow, 
logical processes of the objective mind. In other words 
liis acts become instinctive, which is to say that he is 
under the possession of his subjective entity. 

Cases of premonitions of impending danger are too 
familiar to require any discussion. But it is not often 
realized that they are really examples of the solicitude 
of the subjective mind, which sees and understands 
many things which are hidden to the objective man. 
Most usually* these premonitions are disregarded and do 
not rise above the threshold of the consciousness. This 
is easily explained. The habits of modern man and 
his attitude of scepticism towards everything that he 
does not fully understand render him averse to regard a 
warning which might otherwise avert a peril which his 
objective mind is incapable of realizing. We are at 
present only on the threshold of this vast knowledge 
which is ours when we know how to avail ourselves of 
it, but undoubtedly the day will come when all the 
powers of the subjective mind which are to-day revealed 
by hypnotism will be at the control of the individual. 

There is no doubt of the existence of an invariable 



20 THE DUAL MIND 

law that where a person is in imminent danger the sub- 
jective mind makes a supreme effort to give warning 
and avert the peril. Sometimes it is successful and 
sometimes not, but it is certain that in every case the 
effort is made and the responsibility rests on the indi- 
vidual for disregarding it. 

fhese warnings are in themselvesproof that the sub- 
jective mind has powers of perception and can acquire 
knowledge which is outside the ran^e of the objective 
faculties. It is constantly on the alert, and_ey-en when 
the body is asleep it is always active as is constantly 
being shown by well authenticated instances of where 
men are roused from sleep by an overwhelming sense of 
some approaching danger. They have found the warn- 
ing true, although generally they could not account for 
the warning which had certainly come through no objec- 
tive means. 

Although the subjective mind may appear at times 
to be dormant it is never so. It takes notice of and 
records what passes in all states of the mind, not merely 
the incidents of its waking life but also all that occurs 
during the periods of its own special activity. 

The subjective memory is the only one which records 
every thing down to even the minutest details which 
occur throughout a lifetime. The objective memory 
is exercised by an effort of the will, but that of the sub- 
conscious mind acts unconsciously. It is what we call 
recollection. 

This is one of the greatest marvels of man's sub- 
liminal self. The smallest details of acquired knowl- 
edge are written on the hidden tablets of his mind and 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 21 

only require favorable conditions to call them forth. 
The extent of these vast treasure houses is incredible but 
every thinking man can recall instances of where recol- 
lection came to him, under certain specific circumstances, 
of events which he had long since forgotten. Every 
experience of life is recorded in ineffaceable characters 
on the mind of man. 

Recent scientific investigation has shown how wide 
the difference is between the objective and subjective 
memories. The first has been demonstrated to have 
an absolute location in the cerebrum, and the localization 
of disease has proved that it may be subdivided into 
such divisions as visual memory, auditory memory, 
memory of speech etc. This has been proved beyond' 
doubt by experiments which show that any one of these 
branches can be destroyed by a surgical operation. . 

On the other hand the subjective memory appears to 
te an inherent force which has no apparent anatomical 
relation to the individual and is incapable of being either 
hurt or helped by the surgeon's knife. On the contrary, 
an abnormal condition of the cerebrum has frequently 
"been followed by extraordinary exposition of the 
go.w.ers-olthe subjective mind. This ,has_Q.CCufr'ed in, 
numerous instances in the case of persons mentally 
deranged. While they may have lost much of their 
objective powers of perception those of their subjective 
selves appear to be permanent. 

Except in such cases where human knowledge is 
governed by fixed laws everything acquired by the sub- 
jective mind is through objective education. In other 
words it learns only what has been imparted to it 



22 THE DUAL MIND 

through the operation of the objective senses. For 
instance, its knowledge of books is only such as has 
been acquired by the individual through objective 
means. 

At the same time the subjective mind has powers 
which can at present only be recognized without explan- 
ation. It can make itself heard, felt and can move 
ponderable objects. This discovery has explained much 
of the phenomena of spiritism, although we are far from 
understanding its operation or the laws under which it 
is governed. Its apparent powers of annihilating space 
and time and wandering from country to country with- 
out the body is another of the fascinating problems 
which it offers for solution. 

There are several ways in which the subconscious 
mind can be brought above the threshold of conscious- 
ness and placed in control of the individual. When this 
is done we term the results phenomena and the leading 
instances which have been alluded to here are caused 
through the medium of hypnotism or mesmerism. That 
is : percussive sounds, such as table rappings, movement 
of ponderable bodies and phantasmagoric appearances. 

One of the curiosities of the subconscious mind is 
that the only branch of human knowledge which it 
appears to know instinctively is that of mathematics. It 
cannot tell historical or geographical events, but it can 
estimate time without the aid of an instrument or make 
an arithmetical calculation with no apparent process of 
reason. A third class of phenomena to be observed is 
in respect to music. In these three classes are to be 
found explanations of the various mathematical and 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 23 

musical prodigies which have appeared from time to 
time in the world. 

Music is a phase of the human soul and belongs abso- 
lutely to the realm of the subconscious. All musicians 
have an inherent power of grasping the laws of har- 
mony and it is not too much to say that all genuine 
music is the product of the unconscious mind. There^ 
is practically no limit to the power of music over the 
subconscious mind. It is the universal language of the 
human soul and appeals alike to the most cultured man 
and the savage. It is also the most potent force for the^ 
awaking of the subconscious memory that we know. 
A familiar tune will recall to a man events and experi- 
ences which could not be brought back by any effort of 
the will. 

An inherent power of the subjective mind is its 
faculty for measuring lapse of time. The objective mind 
does not possess it and can only measure time by the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, or some other mate- 
rial aid. The subjective mind on the other hand requires 
no dependence on objective aids, or the exercise of 
reason. Generally speaking the inherent powers of the 
subjective mind pertain to a comprehension of the laws 
of nature. It comprehends by intuition the laws of 
mathematics, the laws governing the harmony of sounds 
and in some instances th e^ laws governing the harm on y 
of colors. 

An important distinction between the subjective and 
objective minds rests in the fact that in the first case 
all reasoning is deductive while in the second it may be 
inductive. The subjective mind will accept any premises 



24 THE DUAL MIND 

and reason deductively unerringly. The one exception 
to this rule is when the premises are opposed to the prin- 
ciples of the person. It is unlike the objective mind 
in being incapable of taking a series of experiences or 
facts, and from them drawing general conclusions to 
guide future action or establish a general law. 

It may be noted here that through the subjective 
mind mathematical and musical faculties can be devel- 
oped in individuals without objective training. In fact 
this has been done in some cases where the individual 
was incapable of receiving any considerable objective 
education. 

The subjective mind is always subject to suggestion 
from the objective mind, either that of its own person 
or of some one else. What is more, it can be controlled 
by suggestions opposed to all reason. The objective 
mind will reject suggestions which are opposed to its 
sense of reason, its positive knowledge or the evidence 
of its senses. On the other hand the subjective mind 
will accept any premise that is suggested to it no matter 
how absurd or illogical it may be. This is the whole 
basis of hypnotic phenomena, and it is important to 
remember that the subjective mind will always accept 
suggestions when intelligently and actively employed. 

This amenability to suggestion is always strongest 
during sleep, for which reason sleep is usually, although 
not necessarily, invoked by hypnotists. The subjective 
mind is constantly under control by its own objective 
mind, for which reason the objective mind must first 
be in abeyance before a second person can bring full 
power of suggestion to bear on the subjective mind. 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 25 

The impossibility of the subjective mind to reason 
inductively and the invariable readiness with which it 
will accept any premise that is suggested to it have 
formed the basis of some of the most interesting phe- 
nomena of hypnotism. An experiment which was car- 
ried out recently by Professor Millet of Paris demon- 
strated in an extraordinary manner this curious quality. 
The subject was a young man who after a brilliant colle- 
giate career was beginning to make his name known at 
the Parisian bar. He consented to allow himself to 
be placed under hypnotic influence and was immediately 
informed that he was a believer in Mohamet. He 
promptly accepted the suggestion and for over an hour 
maintained a brilliant and faultlessly logical argument 
on the tenets of the Mohammedan faith. On a subse- 
quent occasion he argued with equal lucidity and acu- 
men on the doctrine of Pythagoras. This experiment 
was similar to a series conducted by Professor Millet 
in every one of which the subjects accepted unquestion- 
ably suggested positions which were totally at variance 
with their personal convictions and argued with unerr- 
ing logic from these propositions. 

The peculiarity seems to arise from the persistency 
with which the subjective mind will hold to and follow 
every idea suggested. It is worthy of note, however, 
that it ig absolutely incapable of controversial argument. 

The statement that the subjective mind reasons 
deductively has reference to the results of its reasoning 
rather than to the forms it employs. That is to say that 
while it may not reach its conclusions by syllogism they 
are always syllogistically correct. The deductions of 



26 THE DUAL MIND 

the subjective mind are always just and syllogistically 
perfect and are equally so whether the original premises 
suggested are true or false.^ 

The subjective mind never classifies a series of well- 
known facts, and argues from them up to general princi- 
pals, but, given a certain principal to start with, will 
reason deductively from it down to all legitimate infer- 
ences with a marvellous cogency and power. 

It is noteworthy that the comparative ease and per- 
fection which are acquired in any pursuit depend on the 
degree in which it ceases to be connected with the con- 
scious ego. That is to say that the powers of the sub- 
jective mind are exercised with greater facility than 
those which have been attained through the operation of 
the objective faculties. At the same time a man cannot 
be said to be fully normal when he is under control of his 
subjective mind, and when this condition is permanent 
he is insane. 

It must always be remembered that the subjective 
mind depends to a very large extent for its education 
upon the objective faculties. No person who has not 
had an objective education can become a great orator, 
or excel in any human effort merely by the development 
of his subliniinal self. The most perfect exhibition of 
intellectual power comes from the synchronous develop- 
ment of the objective and subjective minds. Under 
these conditions the individual has all the benefits of 
his reasoning powers combined with the perfect memory 
of his subjective mind and its marvellous power of 
arranging its resources in a syllogistic manner. 

There are only in all history a few examples where 



THE SUBJECTIVE MIND 27 

this condition has existed. It may be perfectly normal 
but it is seldom indeed that it is found in perfection. 
Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Shakespeare are probably 
the most remarkable examples known, and even in their 
cases there were flaws of development. 

Innumerable attempts have been made to define gen- 
ius, and none of them are completely satisfactory. 
Psychologically at all events genius seems to be the 
synchronous development of the objective and subjec- 
tive minds. When these two faculties of man approach 
an even balance, with no undue preponderance on one 
side or the other, an individual shows those powers 
which we denominate as genius. 

On the other hand where the objective mind is 
markedly dominant, the order of intelligence is low, 
while if the subjective mind has the supremacy the indi- 
vidual will be, to some extent at least, insane. 

In no respect is the phenomenon of the subjective 
mind more deserving of study than in the intuitive man- 
ner in which it impels the individual to cling to life. 
There occur moments in the lives of most men when 
if it were not for this sense they would destroy them- 
selves. In fact it is hardly an exaggeration to say that 
if it were not for this instinctive love of existence the 
human race would long e'er this have vanished from the 
earth. 

One of the most interesting phases of this instinct 
is that it is strongest during the years when man is at 
his highest stage of usefulness and diminishes with 
increasing years. From youth to middle age the aver- 
age man clings to life with, passionate and unreasoning 



28 THE DUAL MIND 

intensity. No matter how terrible the catastrophes 
which overwhelm him, no matter how lost of all hope 
he may consider himself, he will yet hold on to life 
with a grim tenacity which only insanity or some abnor- 
mal condition can affect. As soon, however, as old age 
approaches this desire begins to grow feebler, and not 
infrequently ends in not merely a willingness to die but 
even a desire to lay down a burden which has become 
irksome. 

Avoiding any excursion into the realm of polemics, 
the existence of the dual personality of man and the 
extraordinary consequences which that fact brings about 
is a subject worthy of the attention and study of every 
progressive being. 



CHAPTER III 

HYPNOTISM 

MODERN science has dispelled the mystery which 
for so long enveloped hypnotism and its manifes- 
tations. It is no longer necessary to believe that a man 
who exercises hypnotic powers is in alliance with the 
author of evil or has sold his soul to that interesting 
person, the devil. Hypnotism is no longer a subject of 
fear or sneers except on the part of the most ignorant. 

The cause of hypnotism lies in the fact that every 
human being in the world consists of a dual personality. 
There are two distinct entities in every man and woman. 
That is to say, of course, two mentalities, for the physi- 
cal can be ignored. These two personalities are called 
in scientific terms the objective and subjective minds. 
The objective mind is that with which we perform all 
our conscious acts and formulate all our conscious 
thoughts. The subjective mind is much more subtle 
and receives and records all those impressions which we 
absorb unconsciously, but which nevertheless make up 
so large a part of our lives and play so important a 
part in the development of our characters. 

A very simple illustration will demonstrate the dis- 
tinction betv^een the objective and subjective mind. You 
meet a friend and chat with him. During your conver- 
sation your conscious or objective mind has been fully 
occupied with the subject of your talk. You paid no 

29 



30 THE DUAL MIND 

attention that you were aware of to your friend's clothes 
or appearance, yet both were absorbed by your sub- 
conscious or subjective mind. If it became necessary 
later you would be able to recall what your friend 
looked like and what he wore. Of course the recollec- 
tion would be more or less distinct in accordance as 
your subconscious mind was acute or dull. 

To use another illustration. You enter a room to 
obtain a book. For the time being your conscious atten- 
tion is wholly occupied with your search for the book. 
You move tables and chairs about and shift papers and 
other articles, almost oblivious of their existence. Yet 
subsequently if you were questioned you would recall 
the appearance of the room and more or less accurately, 
and what it contained. You had not deliberately 
thought of these things but unconsciously you had 
absorbed them. 

One of the most convincing and striking proofs of 
the dual mentality which exists in man is afforded by 
the phenomena of dreams. In fact it was this which 
first led scientists to suspect the existence of two dis- 
tinct minds. 

In waking hours our motions as well as our thoughts 
are controlled by our consciousness and we think along 
certain lines or move in certain directions according to 
what we term our will. When we sleep this controlling 
force is dormant. All the impressions and images which 
were received by the subjective mind in our waking 
hours rush pell-mell through our brain and form weird, 
inconsequent pictures which are influenced by our physi- 
cal condition. Many of these images and impressions 



HYPNOTISM 31 

we cannot recall, when we wake again, of ever having 
received but there seems no reason to doubt that they 
were received by our subjective mind. 

Of course this is not meant as an explanation of 
dreams. What it is that makes these images come to 
life in our brains and take the forms they do we do not 
know nor have we even a plausible reason to offer. The 
phenomena of dreams is as great a mystery to-day as it 
was in the days of the Egyptian soothsayers, but it has 
taught us that there exists in the marvellous mechanism 
of man not one but two mentalities. 

It has taught us another thing, for it has thrown a 
searchlight on the hitherto obscure subject or hypnotism. 
In_the first place, we have learned the rnost important 
fact that hypnotic sleejp d^ in any respect 

fjQmjnatwjil^leep,_ _Th.Q hypnotist puts his subject to 
sleep simply through the power of suggestion, and sug- 
gestion plays a large part in every natural sleep. 

Every man and woman in the world, be they Chris- 
tian or heathen, savage or civilized, has in babyhood 
been lulled to slumber by a mother or some one who 
took her place. The woman, rocking her baby to sleep 
on her breast, is an unconscious hypnotist. She is impell- 
ing her child to slumber by suggestion and that is pre- 
cisely what the hypnotist does. Moreover, any adult 
who goes to sleep in normal moments wishes to do so. 
He is practising hypnotism on himself which is just as 
simple and easy an operation as to be hypnotised by 
an outsider. In fact it is usually a much simpler opera- 
tion. 

Which brings us to the main proposition. Hypno- 



32 THE DUAL MIND 

tism means nothing more or less than suggestion, and 
it is practised unconsciously by almost everybody every 
day of their lives. There are few of us who have not 
amused ourselves at one time or another by looking 
fixedly at some person in our neighborhood with the 
intention of making the subject of our regard look at 
us in turn. That little experiment is pure hypnotism, 
and, incidently, it may be taken as a complete proof 
that every one of us is a hypnotist in embryo; it is 
not necessary to have long* hair and creepy eyes or any 
similar nonsense. 

Every man or woman that has a clear mind is a hyp- 
notist, and their power rests with their mental develop- 
ment and the amount of study they care to give the 
subject. The amusing tricks which the parlor hypnotist 
performs are generally within the capabilities of any 
man in the room. The only difference is that the per- 
former had gone to the trouble to study the science, and 
probably had some natural inclination in that direction. 

Hypnotism appeals to and controls the suggestive 
mind. In other words, it is the substitution of the 
hypnotist's objective mind for the objective mind of 
the subject. When a hypnotist puts a subject to sleep 
he is performing identically the same operation that he 
does when he puts himself to sleep. In the first instance 
he is using his objective mind and the subject's subjec- 
tive mind and in the second both minds are his own. 
From which it readily can be seen that natural sleep 
and hypnotic sleep are one and the same thing. 

This fact is well recognized by the medical frater- 
nity, and no modern doctor hesitates to put a patient to 



HYPNOTISM 33 

sleep by hypnotic means any more than he would hesi- 
tate to go to sleep himself. In fact he is far more will- 
ing to use hypnotism than drugs, for the latter must 
always have a physical reaction whereas hypnotism is 
purely a natural means. 

It is well to emphasize the fact that there is noth- 
ing occult or supernatural about hypnotism. It is a 
science, the causes of which are well understood and 
which requires no more special attributes to learn 
than the science of chemistry or medicine. Of course 
as one chemist is greater than another and one 
physician than another physician, so one hypnotist 
will be capable of producing much better results than 
his fellow who is not his mental equal. However, a 
certain proficiency can be obtained by any normal per- 
son, and if amusement is all that is sought the simple 
tricks of the parlor hypnotist are practically within the 
mastery of everybody. 

Up to a comparatively recent period it was supposed 
that the only method of producing hypnosis was by oral 
suggestion. The experiments of Professor Braid and 
others have however, demonstrated that this by no 
means is the case, and that a subject may be thrown into 
a hypnotic state by purely mechanical means. 

Professor Braid discovered that by gazing steadily 
at a bright object, such as a polished disk of steel, hyp- 
notic sleep could be induced. All that was necessary was 
for the subject to concentrate his mind on the object 
before him, when in a few moments he would pass into 
a state of hypnosis which would be identical with that 
produced by the old method of oral suggestion. This 



34 THE DUAL MIND 

savant also discovered that not merely hypnosis but 
many of the best known phenomena which are attri- 
buted to magnetism could also be produced by this 
method. 

The importance of this discovery was enormous, and 
upon it was founded the largest and best known school 
or hospital of mental therapeutics in Paris. In this hos- 
pital patients, principally those suffering from nervous 
diseases or drug habits, are hypnotised by means of 
steel disks, crystal balls, etc., and then treated by sug- 
gestion. A simple experiment in this method may easily 
be made. 

Take any bright object between the thumb, fore, and 
middle fingers of the left hand. Hold it about twelve 
inches from the eyes and in a line with the forehead. 
The position should be such as to cause the greatest pos- 
sible strain on the optic nerves. A fixed stare on this 
object will first cause the pupils to contract and then 
dilate. After a few moments the eyes will assume a 
wavering motion, and if the fore and middle fingers of 
the right hand be then extended, slightly separated, and 
carried from the object towards the eyes the latter will 
close with a vibratory motion. 

In carrying out this experiment with a subject it 
may sometimes fail on account of the eyeballs moving. 
It should be impressed upon the subject that he must 
allow his eyes to close when your fingers approach, and 
maintain the eyeballs in the same position, riveting his 
attention upon the object he is supposed to be look- 
ing at. 

In this form of producing hypnosis it is not abso- 



HYPNOTISM 35 

lutely necessary that the object held be a bright one, but 
the brighter it is the greater the strain that will be 
exercised on the eyeballs which is an important part of 
the experiment. As a matter of fact, the fingers alone 
of the hypnotist will be sufficient if the subject con- 
centrates his mind absolutely on what he is gazing at 
and is thoroughly in accord with the experiment. 

The principal points to remember are that whatever 
the object, it should be held not more than a foot away 
from the subject's eyes and where the light will fall on 
it. The back of the subject should be turned to the 
light, and during the ten or twelve seconds, which is 
all the time necessary for the experiment ordinarily, he 
must keep his eyeballs motionless in a strained stare. 

In the first experiments carried out along these lines 
it was thought sufficient to get the patient to gaze fix- 
edly at an object until his eyes closed involuntarily. In 
many cases, however, it was found that this caused sub- 
sequent pain m the eyeballs and inflammation of the 
conjunctual membrane. In order to avoid this the plan 
was adopted of the hypnotist closing the eyes himself 
after he had noticed the beginning of the vibratory 
motion which betokened the approach of hypnosis. 

Where hypnosis is produced solely by oral sugges- 
tion, the process is really as simple and easily mastered 
as where mechanical means are employed. The eyes of 
the hypnotist take the place of the object on which the 
subject gazed in the latter case. The experimenter 
requests the subject to gaze steadily into his eyes, and 
maintain the stare as long as his eyes can, remain open. 
Then he asks him to think of nothing but sleep. It must 



36 THE DUAL MIND 

be fully understood that there is no such thing as 
involuntary hypnotism. A man cannot be hypnotised 
against his will, and there is no use in attempting the 
experiment unless the suy ect^j^pxks in agreement wijh 
the hypnotist. 

Having captured the undivided attention of the sub- 
ject, the hypnotist in a slow, clear voice repeats some- 
thing to this effect : 

''You are becoming very sleepy. Your legs are tired, 
your arms are tired, your whole body is tired. You 
cannot move any of your limbs, and you can see nothing. 
You must go to sleep for you are far too weary to 
remain awake any longer." Then in a commanding 
voice he adds : "Sleep." 

Some people are far more liable to hypnotic influence 
than others, and many will go into a state of hypnosis 
at the word of command but others will be only partially 
affected and it will be necessary to continue the process 
of suggestion by repeating in slow and persuasive tones : 

''You are now going to sleep, to deep sleep. You 
are so drowsy : O so drowsy and you must sleep deep. 
Your eyelids can remain open no longer. Thdy are so 
heavy, and drowsily, drowsily you fall to sleep. Sleep 
deep, deep down deep, fast, fast asleep." 

If the suggestion is not sufficient to completely close 
the eyelids, although the subject appears sleepy and 
under hypnotic influence, they can be closed by the 
hypnotist gently pressing them down with the tips of 
his fingers. There is no mystic formula or any exact 
words to be used in producing hypnosis. All that is 



HYPNOTISM 37 

necessary is to repeat the suggestion of sleep, but it 
will be found that short, long-syllabled words are best, 
and the voice should be pitched in a low, clear mono- 
tone. 



il 



CHAPTER IV 

MESMERIC PASSES 

THE inducement of hypnosis by mesmeric passes 
opens up a wide field in which our knowledge must 
be said to be far from accurate. The theory advanced 
by Mesmer, and still held by many of his disciples, was 
that there was a subtle fluid which was transmitted from 
the operator to the subject. He asserted that hypnosis 
was caused by this fluid, and could be induced indepen- 
dently of suggestion. 

One of the most curious phenomena observed in con- 
nection with the process of mesmeric passes is that the 
mesmerist hypnotises himself by the same act by which 
he mesmerises his subject. This is so at least when he 
employs the old methods of inducing the subconscious 
state. That is, passes, fixed gaze, and concentration of 
the mind. 

The method invented by Mesmer for the production 
of a state of hypnosis consists properly in a series of 
passes made from the head downwards, while the oper- 
ator gazes fixedly into the subject's eyes and concen- 
trates his mind absolutely on the work in hind. The 
experiment will fail if the mesmerist allows his atten- 
tion to be distracted for a moment. 

An important distinction in regard to the mesmeric 
method is that it is claimed by many of its most promi- 
nent exponents that by it a subject may be thrown into a 

38 



MESMERIC PASSES 39 

mesmeric state against his will. This is a point which 
has never been definitely decided, but it seems certain 
that it is largely influenced by questions of personality 
and circumstances. 

Whatever truth there may be in the ''fluid theory" 
of Mesmer, it is certain that the experience of thousands 
has shown that when passes are made over them, even 
at a distance of some feet, curious sensations are pro- 
duced. The effect seems to be akin to that of a light 
shock of electricity and produces a remarkably soothing 
effect upon the nervous system. If this effect is con- 
tinued and the subject is receptive the final result is 
mesmeric sleep. This proves that there is some myster- 
ious influence which emanates from the mesmerist and 
that it can be controlled by his will. There is a wide 
field for speculation opened here, but up to the present 
time all that we can do is to accept the facts as they are 
known to us, and wait for more light as we become 
better acquainted with the processes of the human mind 
and body. 

There has been practically no change in the theory of 
the mesmerists since it was first advanced by Mesmer. 
It may be briefly expressed thus: There is a subtle 
fluid, akin to magnetism, which, by an intense effort of 
the mind, can be projected from the finger tips upon 
a subject, producing hypnosis and all the varied 
phenomena of magnetism. 

Persons who know little or nothing of the subject 
are apt to sneer at this theory as fantastic, but there has 
never been any other put forward which offered a 
reasonable explanation of mesmeric phenomena. 



40 THE DUAL MIND 

Mesmeric passes are made with the palms toward 
the subject and in a downward direction to produce 
sleep. To awake the subject the motion is reversed, 
an upward movement with the backs of the hands 
towards the sleeper. Personal contact is always neces- 
sary. Sometimes the mesmerist communicates his 
influence by pressing the balls of his thumbs against 
those of the patient, but more usually in making the 
downward passes he gently touches the head and face 
or other parts of the body. 

Two things are essential in mesmerism : Intense 
concentration of mind and personal contact. Professor 
Bernstein of Germany, who has been remarkably suc- 
cessful in his mesmeric experiments, gives the follow- 
ing description of his method : 

''Having seated the subject in a chair before me, I 
raise my hands and move them downward with my 
palms toward him. The pass is made from the top of 
the head to the pit of the stomach and at its conclusion 
I recommence bringing my hands back into position 
with a wide-sweeping movement. In making the passes 
the tips of my fingers gently touch my subject. It takes 
from about six to ten minutes to produce sleep. To 
awaken the subject I reverse my passes, raising my 
hands over the body from below with the backs turned 
toward the subject." 

The processes which develop the primary source of 
power in the mesmerist are identical or cognate with 
those which place his subject in a mesmeric condition. 
Just in proportion to the perfection of these conditions 
can the phenomenon of telepathic clairvoyance and all 



MESMERIC PASSES 41 

the higher phenomena of subconscious activity be 
produced. 

When a man is mesmerised his subjective mind may 
be stimulated to activity, although his objective mind 
may not be completely in abeyance. However, the 
degree in which subjective phenomena are produced will 
depend on the degree in which the primary self is con- 
trolled. 

One of the most important points in connection with 
mesmerismi is the extent of what is known as the rapport 
between the mesmeriser and the subject. This rapport 
is a peculiar sympathy or harmonious relationship, and 
is exhibited in different ways. Its general manifesta- 
tion is that the subject while under mesmeric influence 
can hear no voice but that of his mesmeriser, will do no 
bidding or receive any suggestion save from him, and 
the latter alone has the power to awaken him. This 
rapport differs greatly in different cases, but it always 
exists in some degree. 

The subconscious ego forms habits easily which are 
as easily broken. It is, however, almost impossible to 
eradicate the habit of personality suggestion or rapport 
if it is permitted to be formed. This is a direction in 
which danger lies for the subject who permits himself to 
be too frequently mesmerised by the same individual. 
He runs a risk of losing to a certain extent his own 
personality and being perpetually under the sway of the 
will of another. 

The exhibition of telepathic powers requires certain 
conditions of perfect rapport between the operator and 
his subject, which is treated more fully in another place. 



42 THE DUAL MIND 

The objective senses of the subject must be in complete 
abeyance, and the operator must be in a partially sub- 
jective state himself. 

Suggestion is not necessarily limited to oral com- 
munication. Telepathy is just as much suggestion as 
that made by speech, and is often far more effective. 
The mesmeric state offers peculiar facilities for observ- 
ing the mystery of the transmission of thought and 
sensation which we term telepathy. In fact, in the 
investigations which have been carried on in this new 
science the most remarkable results have been obtained 
through mesmerised subjects. Numerous authentic 
records exist of the transmission of the sensations of 
pain and taste while persons have been in the mesmeric 
state. 

Experiments conducted by the London Society for 
Psychical Research have demonstrated beyond all doubt 
that telepathic powers are possessed by a large number 
of people, and early mesmerists have proved conclusively 
that the mesmeric condition is the one most favorable 
for the development and exhibition of these powers. 
Whenever the mesmerist is in subjective rapport with 
his subject he can convey suggestions telepathically with 
as much certainty and power as he could orally. 

It is important to note that ordinary hypnotic 
methods, whether mechanical or otherwise, are not suffi- 
cient to make the subject respond telepathically. To 
obtain exhibitions of the higher phenomena of hypno- 
tism with any certainty of results it is essential to use 
mesmeric methods. In simple hypnotism there is no 
condition of telepathic rapport existing between the 



MESMERIC PASSES 43 

operator and his subject. Consequently, the phenomena, 
which may be exhibited by mesmeric processes, and 
which arise from telepathic rapport, cannot be exhibited. 

Mesmerism is distinct from hypnotism in that the 
latter depends for its effects upon oral suggestion, 
whereas mesmerism exerts a positive force of great 
power upon the vitality of the body of a subject, and in 
addition to oral suggestion, through rapport, can sug- 
gest telepathically as certainly and powerfully as by oral 
methods. 

It naturally follows that mesmerism must be the 
most powerful in its immediate effects, for it employs 
mental suggestion as well as oral suggestion, and in 
addition that mysterious psycho-physical force which is 
known as animal magnetism. 

It is always advisable to use mesmeric passes. In 
the first place, they are so generally believed to be neces- 
sary that they greatly assist by way of suggestion. 
Secondly, they enable the operator to better concentrate 
his mind on what he is doing and to fix his attention 
upon his subject. Thirdly, they operate as a suggestion 
to the operator himself, which is as necessary and 
potent, to obtain the desired end as is suggestion to the 
subject. Lastly, whether the fluidic theory be true or 
not, there is some power which appears to flow from 
the finger tips, and this appearance is as real in its 
effects upon the minds of the operator and subject no 
matter what its actuality may be. This is most import- 
ant, as before any experiment can be a genuine success 
it is essential that confidence be established in both 
parties. 



44 THE DUAL MIND 

Self-confidence in the mind of the operator is at 
least a sine qua non, and this can be accomplished by 
the simple process of auto-suggestion. Without this 
self-confidence he will fail to fix the attention of his 
subject and prevent it from wandering from object to 
object and from this to that. 

Secure the subject's attention and hold it. Allow 
him to see by your easy and self-confident manner that 
you are perfect master of the situation. Assert boldly 
that you have the power to hypnotise him and the battle 
is more than half won. Never let the thought of failure 
enter your mind, and never make a qualified statement. 
Everything you say should be direct, dogmatic and 
positive. The subject should be enjoined never to let 
his eyes wander but to keep them fixed on you and to 
allow his mind to remain as blank as possible. 

The degree of hypnotic sleep into which a subject 
can be placed at the first trial varies greatly with 
individuals. Some persons merely become drowsy, 
others pass into a light sleep, while a third class are 
thrown into the deepest form of somnambulism. As 
a general rule, the degree of sleep deepens with each 
hypnosis. The subject usually reaches his deepest stage 
about the fifth time he has submitted himself to the 
influence. 

Sleep is not essential to a hypnotic state, although 
the higher manifestations cannot be obtained except 
when the subject is somnolent. It will frequently be 
found that when an individual is hypnotised for the 
first time he only submits to suggestion in a slight 
degree and remains awake. Some simple suggestions, 



MESMERIC PASSES 45 

such as heat on a certain part of the body can, however, 
be made potent. The subject should not be dared to 
open his eyes when he first closes them as he will usually 
be able to do so and, by this exercise of the will, render 
the entire experiment abortive. It should also be care- 
fully borne in mind that no suggestion should be 
made which would be repugnant to the subject's 
consciousness. 

Subjects who sleep lightly at their first seance have 
a tendency to awaken quickly. It is necessary to hold 
their eyelids closed, and say from time to time "sleep," 
in order to keep them under the influence. The habit 
of sleep is very quickly acquired, and after a few experi- 
ments the subject will remain asleep as long as the 
operator remains near, although he will awake im- 
mediately the influence is withdrawn. 

The mode of suggestion should be varied in accor- 
dance with the suggestivity of the subject. A simple 
word of command will not do in all cases. Sometimes 
it is necessary to reason, to prove, in order to impress 
the idea sufificiently upon the mind. In other cases the 
suggestion must be afifirmed in a decided manner, while 
with yet others the idea of sleep must be gently insinu- 
ated. It is always necessary to consider the normal 
individuality of each subject, his inclinations, character 
and special impressionability. 



CHAPTER V 

HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 

THE various degrees of hypnosis and conditions into 
which a hypnotic subject passes are known by dif- 
ferent names, such as anaesthesia, somnabuHsm, cata- 
lepsy and simple hypnotic sleep. These conditions differ 
considerably, and are produced according to the char- 
acter of the subject, the power exerted by the hypnotist 
and the number of times that the subject has been in 
a state of hypnosis. 

When a subject is thrown into a cataleptic state the 
operator is able to take one of his arms or legs and 
raise it to a certain position when it will remain in that 
pose automatically. This phenomenon is called sug- 
gestive catalepsy because it is easy to recognise that it 
is purely psychical, and is directly due to the passive 
condition of the patient who maintains his limbs in the 
position suggested exactly in the same way that he 
will retain a suggested idea. The extent to which 
cataleptic phenomena can be produced varies with the 
depth of hypnotic influence and the psychical receptivity 
of the subject. 

While verbal suggestion is the best method that can 
be used, it is usually advantageous to accompany the 
words of assertion with an appropriate suggestion. 
While human speech is the best means of expressing a 
suggestion in a precise manner, yet by combining with 

46 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 47 

it a gesture a greater degree of definiteness is often 
obtained. 

The phenomena of hallucinations consists as the 
name implies in making the subject believe ideas and 
facts which do not exist. When a subject is in this 
condition he can easily be made intoxicated by giving 
him a glass of water to drink and assuring him that it 
is whiskey. This is an extremely interesting experi- 
ment, for the intoxication caused by suggestion cannot 
be differentiated, even by a medical man, from that 
caused by actual indulgence in alcoholic beverages. 

Another popular hallucination which is largely made 
use of by professional hypnotists is to make the subject 
assume the name and character of some suggested indi- 
vidual. The suggested personality will be at once 
assumed and carried out with all the marvellous deduc- 
tive reasoning and logical exactness that is characteris- 
tic of the subconscious mind. Thus, for instance, a 
subject may be informed that he is President of the 
United States or King of England. He will immed- 
iately commence to act as if he really occupied one of 
those exhaulted positions, and will carry it through in a 
manner which could not be rivalled by the greatest 
actor that ever appeared on the stage. 

A subject may be made to assume any number of 
characters in the same evening, and there is practically 
no limit to the power of suggestion in this direction. 
It is an extraordinary demonstration of the power of 
a man in a subconscious state to divest himself of his 
own personality and assume that of others simply in 
obedience to the law of suggestion. 



48 THE DUAL MIND 

It may again be emphasized that in making all sug- 
gestions the language of the operator should be plain, 
distinct and direct to the point. 

In the condition of anaesthesia the power of sensi- 
bility can be absolutely destroyed by suggestion. A 
subject can be made to thrust pins into his body or allow 
them to be thrust in by another person without experi- 
encing the slightest pain. In fact, it seems to be true 
that a patient may be submitted to unlimited pain while 
in this condition and know as little about it as if he 
were under the influence of chloroform or any other 
material anaesthetic. This phase of hypnotic phe- 
nomena opens a wide field for conjecture in therapeutics, 
but that is a subject which must be dealt with separately. 

One of the most extraordinary effects of hypnosis is 
upon the memory. This faculty may be made extremely 
dull or remarkably active. The subject can be made 
to forget his own name, and again he will recall things 
long forgotten, and recite poems which he could not 
possibly do in his conscious moments. Even the ability 
to speak a foreign language may return, although many 
years may have elapsed since the conscious ego lost all 
remembrance of the tongue. There are instances where 
hypnotic subjects commenced to speak a foreign lan- 
guage which they had not used or heard since their 
early childhood. 

Where the hypnotist wishes to demonstrate the 
phenomena of suggestive catalepsy, it is almost invari- 
ably necessary to use mesmeric passes. For example, 
place the subject's arm straight out from his body and 
make a pass from the shoulder to the fingers, saying at 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 49 

the same time : ''Now your arm is stiff and rigid and 
you have lost the power to move it. You may try as 
much as you Hke but you cannot move that arm. I 
have placed it there and it must stay there as long as I 
wish." 

If the subject is properly under hypnotic influence 
the arm will remain in the position in which it was 
placed. In a similar way the subject may be made to 
hold his mouth open so that he cannot utter a word, or 
hold his limbs stiffened so that it is impossible for him 
to walk. Or the experiment may be varied by making 
the subject move a limb in a certain direction. He will 
continue the movement indefinitely until it is arrested. 

A subject may be caused to assume an infinite num- 
ber of attitudes and expressions. He may be made to 
express ecstasy, prayer, grief, suffering, disdain, anger 
and fear. A* very amusing method in which this kind 
of automatism may be demonstrated is as follows. The 
operator looks fixedly at the subject so as to arrest his 
gaze. He then walks slowly backward, whereupon the 
subject immediately arises and follows him, imitating to 
the smallest detail every gesture and act of the operator. 
In this way he may be made to dance, laugh, sing, blow 
his nose, clap his hands, or perform any other antics 
which the operator suggests. A subject may be given 
a piece of soap and told to wash his hands. He will 
continue the operation for hours if he is not stopped. 

It is remarkable that where a complex act is sug- 
gested, and no suggestion made as to how it shall be 
carried out, the subject will usually devise a method 
of carrying out the suggestion with exceptional ingenu- 



50 THE DUAL MIND 

ity. For instance, it was once suggested to a subject 
that he should poison a member of the company with a 
glass of pure water, which he was told contained arse- 
nic. Of his own volition he immediately approached 
the designated victim and offered him the water, say- 
ing : "It is a very hot day." 

Another subject was told to steal a pocket handker- 
chief of one of the party. He walked towards the indi- 
vidual and when approaching him, feigned dizziness, 
reeled and fell against him, snatching the pocket hand- 
kerchief as he did so. In a similar instance the subject 
approached his victim and asked him abruptly what he 
had on his hand. The person addressed looked at his 
hand and while he examined it his handkerchief dis- 
appeared. 

All suggestions should be made with regard being 
paid to the personality and habits of the subject. If he 
is given a task which is along the line of his special 
abilities, the most extraordinary ingenuity and resource 
will be displayed. On the other hand, if the suggestion 
is opposed to his natural inclinations and experience 
the result will be correspondingly poor. 

One of the best known features in hypnosis is the 
rigidity of the body which frequently ensues when a 
subject is thoroughly under hypnotic influence. There 
is sometimes a complete contraction of all the voluntary 
muscles and every joint in the body becomes as stiff as 
those of a corpse. In this state the head of the subject 
may be placed on one chair and his feet on another. The 
body will lie, without support, stiff and straight and can 
often support a heavy weight, such as another man 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 51 

seated upon him. Usually a command from the opera- 
tor is sufficient to put an end to this rigidity, but some- 
times it continues for a considerable time and has been 
known to last for seventeen hours. One of the most 
remarkable features of this phenomenon is that the sub- 
ject, upon recovery, does not experience any great 
fatigue from having maintained such great muscular 
exertion. It is possible for a subject to stand on one 
leg for an hour and then be brought back to conscious- 
ness when the ordeal will not be followed by any seri- 
ous physical fatigue or pain. 

What is termed by Liebault ''automatic movement" 
is where the subject has his limbs started by the opera- 
tor revolving or moving in some direction. No verbal 
suggestion is necessary but the movement will be con- 
tinued indefinitely, precisely the same as if it had been 
suggested orally. 

In the lighter stages of hypnosis the memory is per- 
fect. The memory of the subject of his abnormal state is 
precise, and at the conclusion of the hypnosis he is able 
to describe all that occurred. In the deeper stages, how- 
ever, the subject rarely remembers his experiences when 
he has returned to consciousness. 

Where memory is destroyed on waking the condi- 
tion is known as somnambulism. Sometimes somnam- 
bulism occurs only at certain moments during hypnosis. 
At other times it is the constant condition. It is in the 
latter case that anaesthesia, catalepsy and all the higher 
phenomena of hypnosis are brought to their highest 
perfection. 

As a general rule, persons who have been in a som- 



52 THE DUAL MIND 

nambulistic state will in their waking moments remem- 
ber nothing of what transpired during hypnosis, 
although on being again hypnotised they recall every 
detail of their previous experience. 

In the phenomenon of hallucinations some of the 
more curious effects which have been demonstrated may 
be noted. 

If a subject be given an imaginary object, such as 
a book, to hold and be told to press his hands together, 
he will experience a resistance precisely as though he 
held a real book. 

If a portrait is made to appear on a piece of cloth or 
cardboard, both sides of which are the same, the sub- 
ject will always see the imaginary picture on the same 
side of the cloth on which it was first shown to him. 
It will not affect his judgment no matter how many 
times the cloth is turned about. 

An imaginary opera glass handed to a subject will 
perform its functions for him just as if it was real. He 
will see distant objects near him and on reversing the 
instrument will see near objects far from him. In the 
same way objects will appear enlarged to him on look- 
ing at them through an imaginary microscope. 

It would appear that the sense of feeling is the 
faculty of the body which is most susceptible to the 
influence of suggestion. The skilled mesimerist, having 
placed himself in rapport with his subject, can destroy 
all sense of feeling in any part of the body by a few 
downward passes and an oral suggestion. Thus a few 
passes over the face and the suggestion, 'There is no 
feeling in your face," will produce a remarkable phe- 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 53 

nomenon. Pins may be stuck in the patient's face and 
even teeth extracted and he will remain unmoved and 
show no signs of hurt. The whole body may be made 
insensible to pain in the same manner, a fact which is 
of immense value in mental therapeutics. 

The sense of hearing is also readily susceptible. A 
person in a hypnotic condition will hear on suggestion 
the rattling of a train, a woman singing or any musical 
instrument playing. Some very rem.arkable experi- 
ments have been carried out along these lines, not merely 
demonstrating the power of mesmeric passes but also 
that of mental suggestion. 

For example, a subject under mesmeric control has 
been informed that he is listening to a piano. He im- 
mediately accepts the suggestion and listens with a 
rapt attention to the purely imaginary instrument. 
Without saying anything the mesmerist then mentally 
suggests the name of the piece which is being played 
and follows his mental suggestion with an oral question 
as to what it is that the subject hears. Invariably the 
response will come promptly, naming the piece of music 
that was in the operator's mind. 

It must be remembered however, that the subject can 
only be made to hear such sounds and music as are 
familiar to him. A man who had never heard a lion 
roar could not be made to hear one under mesmeric 
conditions. It is advisable also not to make musical 
experiments with persons who are tone deaf or 
unmusical. 

Experiments along these lines can be varied infinitely 
with the most amusing results. A subject can be made 



54 THE DUAL MIND 

to eat a raw potato with the greatest relish, beHeving 
that he is being treated to an orange. He may be told 
that he is standing on a red-hot iron plate and he will 
immediately jump from the spot with every symptom 
of pain and fright. 

There is a wide latitude here for the originality of 
the experimenter, although it is hardly necessary to say 
that no experiment should be indulged in which would 
be resented by the subject if he were in his normal condi- 
tion. It should also be borne in mind that experiments 
which would be repugnant to the consciousness of the 
hypnotic are very apt to break the mesmeric spell and 
bring him back to a normal state with a suddenness that 
may produce distressing results, such as to throw him 
into a hysterical condition. An abrupt awakening from 
a mesmeric trance is always accompanied with a nervous 
shock which may be actually detrimental to the health 
of a very sensitive person. It should be strictly avoided. 

When a subject submits to be mesmerised for the 
first time, the suggestions which are made to him should 
be simple. There should be nothing to shock his sense 
of probability. Usually the experiments should be 
confined to the sense of touch and taste which are the 
most readily susceptible to the influence of the mes- 
merist and do not require too great a tax on the imagi- 
nation of the subject. 

A curious fact in connection with these experiments 
is that when an effect is suggested without any cause 
being given, the subject immediately differentiates. For 
instance, if the subject is told that there is a bitter taste 
in his mouth he will usually admit the sensation but will 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 55 

remark that although he tastes something bitter he has 
nothing in his mouth. Similarly he may be told that 
his hand is burning hot. He will feel his hand and then 
remark with surprise that although it is hot he is not 
holding anything that should cause the sensation. 

An endless number of amusing experiments can be 
conducted through limiting the powers of the subject. 
For instance, he may be told that he is dumb except for 
some simple rhyme such as ''Little Bo-Peep" which he 
can say. Try as he may he will not be able to say 
anything but that nursery jingle and will commence to 
repeat it in answer to everything that is said to him. 
He may also be told that while his right leg is perfectly 
sound he is unable to place it on the ground and can 
only move about by hopping on his left leg. He will 
kick and struggle to use the influenced member but 
cannot do so and will continue his hoppings and strug- 
gles until the suggestion is removed. He may be also 
made to forget his own name, his nationality and the 
names of his relatives and will make the most comical 
efforts to recall these details. 

As mentioned before it is important in experimenting 
with a subject to bear in mind his education and experi- 
ences. It would be useless to ask a man with no knowl- 
edge of Latin to repeat some lines from Virgil or sug- 
gest to a man who knew nothing of China or the 
Chinese that he was a native of the Celestial empire. 
All experiments should lie within the scope of the per- 
sonal knowledge and habits of the subject. 

In the deeper stages of hypnosis the subject has posi- 
tively no recollection in waking moments of events 



56 THE DUAL MIND 

which occurred in the subconscious state but on being 
again mesmerised will resume the former train of 
thought as if no interruption had taken place. Thus it 
is possible, under certain conditions, for a person to 
lead two distinct lives with no connection whatever in 
their minds between the two. 

In carrying out a suggestion made to him a subject 
completely ignores all facts of environment or associa- 
tion which do not have a direct bearing on the carrying 
out of a suggestion. If he is told that he is a dog he 
will, to the limit of his powers, act in all ways that a 
dog would act and be oblivious to everything else. 
Thus if he was told to sit down, he would ignore any 
chairs that might be near him and squat on his haunches 
on the floor. Similarly, he would chase a suggested cat 
or mouse but would pay no attention to anything being 
done by the men and women about him unless it directly 
concerned his supposed canine existence. 

One of the most extraordinary phenomenon in con- 
nection with hypnosis is observed in the force exercised 
by suggestions many hours and even days after they 
have been made. The subject, aroused from his sleep 
and with no recollection of what has passed will un- 
consciously obey a suggestion laid upon him to be car- 
ried out at some future time. 

Subjects have been told, while under hypnotic con- 
trol, that at a certain hour on the following day they 
are to go to sleep. Aroused from hypnosis they go 
about their ordinary affairs but when the appointed 
hour comes the following day they will fall asleep from 
no volition of their own and oftimes under most 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 57 

embarrassing circumstances. It is also possible to 
define clearly the length of time to be passed in 
sleep. A subject can be told to go to sleep for five 
minutes or five hours. He will succumb to slumber and 
awake promptly at the suggested time. This is an 
important proof of the theory that the subconscious 
mind has an absolute intuitive sense of lapse of time 
without the aid of clocks or sun or any other material 
assistance. 

Sleep is only an instance of this phenomenon which 
may be exhibited in a variety of ways. The most cur- 
ious point in this connection is that the suggestion lies 
absolutely dormant until the appointed hour. A sub- 
ject may be told while under hypnosis that he is to eat 
an apple at noon the next day. He is aroused and an 
apple presented to him but it conveys no impression 
to his mind. He has completely forgotten the com- 
mand laid upon him and will remember nothing about 
it until the following noon when he will find himself 
influenced by an imperative desire to eat an apple and 
will do so. 

There is a peculiar parallel which may be drawn here 
between dreams and hypnotic trances. Every one has 
experienced occasions when upon waking from sleep a 
dream which they have had comes before them with 
extraordinary vividness. Yet some hours later they 
find themselves absolutely incapable of recalling the 
slightest detail of it. This curious trick of the memory 
is apparently the same lesion which occurs in the case 
of suggestions and experiences received or passed 
through under hypnotic conditions. 



58 THE DUAL MIND 

Where deferred suggestions are carried out through 
the medium of some material object they are invariably 
obeyed but in other cases they frequently fail. A 
subject may be told to go to a certain place which is 
well known to him, at a certain future time. He will 
invariably obey. But if he is told to perform some 
abstract act, such as dancing or singing, where there is 
nothing concrete to give force to the suggestion he will 
more often disregard the command. 

There is no absolute rule which can be laid down in 
regard to the length of time after which a deferred sug- 
gestion will be operative. It depends largely upon the 
individuality of the subject and the extent to which 
hypnosis has been developed. It will also depend upon 
the methods adopted and the nature of the suggestion. 
The longest length of time on authenic record for a 
deferred suggestion to be carried out is in an instance 
vouched for by Liegois and Liebault. This was a 
case where an entire year elapsed. Another instance 
related by Professor Hudson from his own experience 
involved a lapse of four months. 

It is interesting to observe that where a suggestion 
is deferred for an hour or a couple of hours the sub- 
ject is sometimes punctual, at other times ten or fifteen 
minutes in advance but never late. He may be told 
that in an hours time he will pick up a certain book 
and start reading. He may obey the suggestion within 
forty-five minutes or when the precise hour is elapsed, 
but if he goes beyond the hour the suggestion has lost 
its power. 

Another extremely interesting point is that a subject 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 59 

always has some most plausible reason to give for obey- 
ing the suggestion. He is unconscious of the true 
reason for he has no recollection of any command being 
laid upon him, but no matter how absurd the action 
which he may perform he will always be able to answer 
the query as to why he did it, readily and naturally. 
Having forgotten the origin of the suggestion he imag- 
ines it to be spontaneous and his objective mind at once 
formulates a reason for it. 

Professor Trevor of London relates an extreme and 
amusing instance of a deferred suggestion. He com- 
manded a subject that when he should awake he should 
remove his boots, carry them to a young lady in a dif- 
ferent room in the same house and ask her to repair 
them. The suggestion was pomptly obeyed much to 
the astonishment of the young woman who was entirely 
ignorant of the underlying cause. She asked the sub- 
ject in amazement why he should take her for a cobbler 
and he immediately responded: 

^Tardon me, but I have always admired your self- 
possession so much that I made a foolish little bet with 
myself that you would not lose your presence of mind 
no matter how ridiculous a proposition I might make 
to you." 

The science of mesmerism has been brought to a far 
higher state of perfection in the Orient than either in 
Europe or America where the last and most complete 
stage of hypnosis has rarely been brought about. In 
this condition complete suspension of all physical func- 
tions is produced and a state, impossible to distinguish 
from that of death is caused. Respiration ceases, 



6o THE DUAL MIND 

neither the heart nor the pulses can be observed to move 
and the body becomes cold and rigid. 

This phenomenon has repeatedly been seen in 
India and China by credible witnesses and subjects in 
this condition have been examined by medical men 
who have testified that they were unable to find any 
sign of life in the body. 

Under such circumstances the subconscious mind 
reaches its highest possible degree of intensity and is 
susceptible in an extraordinary extent to the impulses 
and suggestions of the hypnotist. To bring about this 
condition is an extremely dangerous experiment and 
should never be attempted by any one who is not a 
positive adept in the science. 

The complete separation of the mind from the body 
is too tremendous, an undertaking to be lightly entered 
upon and one which demands years of study and 
practice. 

To sleep is always the first tendency observed under 
hypnotic conditions but there is a great distinction 
between the manner and depth of the sleep produced. 
After a subject has been hypnotised many times he may 
acquire a tendency to drop off into what is known as 
"magnetic sleep," or the ''lethargic state." This condi- 
tion is a slumber of such profundity that the operator 
is unable to arouse the subject and should be carefully 
guarded against. Of course there is nothing to be 
alarmed at in the condition for it is simply natural sleep 
of peculiar profoundness and the subject will awake 
after his mind and body have been thoroughly rested. 

However, such a state is useless for the production 



HYPNOTIC CONDITIONS 6i 

of hypnotic phenomena. Left to themselves, sleeping 
subjects will awaken in periods varying from a few 
minutes to several hours and dependent on the physical 
and mental condition in which they were when they 
fell into slumber. 

Under ordinary conditions there is never any diffi- 
culty in arousing a subject. He will return to con- 
sciousness readily on the command of the hypnotist, but 
there is no need for anxiety if he should not immediately 
respond. The operator should always be careful not 
to become flurried or excited as such emotions reflect 
adversely upon the patient and it is only in very rare 
instances that smelling salts, water, etc., should be em- 
ployed to arouse the subject. The mesmerist some- 
times blows upon the eyes of his subject when he wishes 
to awake him but this is merely an aid to suggestion and 
is not of any real significance. 



CHAPTER VI 

LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 

IN the earlier days of modern hypnotism there was 
mtich popular fear that the new science would be- 
come an instrument of crime in the hands of its ex- 
ponents. Sensational stories were told in the press and 
in the corner grocery, of men who had been driven to 
murder and of women who had been ruined by 
hypnotism. 

Even the hypnotists themselves were almost afraid 
of the strange forces they had evoked. They saw that 
their subjects seemingly surrendered all initiative and 
volition into their hands. Whatever was told the victim 
he believed was true; whatever was commanded he 
obeyed. It is little wonder that the people viewed hyp- 
notism with a sort of terror. 

As investigation proceeded however, it was found 
that this fear was unfounded. It is agreed now by all 
the best authorities that hypnotism can rarely become 
the instrument of evil. The reason for this is based 
upon the very nature of the subjective mind, which is 
the guardian and preserver of the soul. It will hearken 
to no suggestion that violates its own moral standard 
or sense of the proprieties. 

Platform experimenters soon discovered that while 
their subject was amenable to any proper suggestion he 
refused instantly to accept any command that was con- 

62 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 63 

trary to his natural instincts. He would cheerfully 
shoot an imaginary enemy with a broom stick, but place 
a real gun in his hand, even if it was not loaded, and he 
would shiver with dread and refuse to fire it. He would 
act as if the stage were a lake and that he was swim- 
ming with all his might, but he could not be persuaded 
to undress. 

In the subjects experimented upon, it was soon found 
that what one man would do easily and naturally 
another would refuse. If he was told that his boots 
were muddy a physician could not be induced to step 
onto a rug until he had carefully cleaned his feet. A 
laboring man would take off his coat and vest and roll 
up his sleeves without demur, but another man, unused 
to appearing before ladies in his shirt sleeves could not 
be induced to take off his coat. 

There are many reasons to think, however great the 
control may seem to be, that the subject retains a linger- 
ing sense of the unreality of the performance. There 
have been cases where men were under hypnotic con- 
trol beyond doubt, and who yet were able to persuade 
themselves that they were going through the perfor- 
mance just to accommodate the operator. They knew 
what they were doing but thought they were doing it 
of their own volition. 

Since the operations of the subconscious mind are 
better understood, no one can imagine for a minute that 
hypnotism might be made the instrument of crime. The 
instinct of self-preservation, the moral instinct, perhaps 
even all instincts lie deep in the subconsciousness. It 
is just as natural for the subconscious mind to refuse to 



64 THE DUAL MIND 

obey a command that is repugnant to it as it is for it to 
endeavor to save in time of danger. As the guardian, it 
never relaxes its vigilance. It is the mian's real self, 
the ever lord of life, not only the servant but in a 
true sense the master of the consciousness. 

While the subject may be highly sensitized, and may 
be so much under control that his inherent desire to 
obey is strong, he yet refuses to do any thing that is 
unnatural to him. It distresses him to refuse. An 
argument flusters him and persistent objection gives 
him a strong nervous shock. This is often sufficient to 
restore him to a normal state, but at times it may drive 
the extremely sensitive one to a condition bordering on 
hysteria, and may be a source of danger. 

In the many cases investigated by the police, where 
criminals have sought to excuse themselves by the claim 
that they were under the malign influence of another 
person who drove them into crime, it has generally been 
found that the motive existed entirely in the mind of 
the criminal, rather than being with the alleged hypno- 
tist. It might be that a person of weak nature, dwell- 
ing and brooding upon some act of revenge or some 
unlawful desire and yet without sufficient courage to 
put his thought into action, would under the stimulus 
of hypnotic suggestion carry out the crime he had medi- 
tated on. In this extreme case however, the crime 
could not fairly be laid at the door of hypnotism, and 
it may be repeated as a clearly defined principal that the 
subconscious self refuses to accept any suggestion 
foreign to its own moral standard. 

In the earlier platform experiments, where the sub- 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 65 

jects often permitted themselves at the command of 
the lecturer to become burglars, pickpockets or assas- 
sins, carrying out their imaginary crimes with great 
dramatic effect, a profound impression was naturally 
made upon the audience. 'T wouldn't place myself in 
that man's power for anything in the world," was a 
comment often heard. 

It seems logical enough to the spectators that if 
young Jones can be made to sneak like an Indian on the 
trail through the audience and despoil Smith of his 
watch and then carry the watch triumphantly to the 
hypnotist, that he would carry out the same crime in 
reality at the command of his master. But it must be 
remembered that Jones is vaguely aware during the 
whole transaction that he is taking part in a sort of 
play. He goes to the platform in the first place, per- 
haps, because he likes to show off. Hypnotic subjects 
who take part in public experiments are almost invari- 
ably vainglorious. They like to be in the limelight. 
They surrender themselves to the lecturer with that one 
point in view, to help in the performance. They know 
beforehand that it is an entertainment, and "for the fun 
of the thing" they are willing to help. 

But back of all the play, the subconscious mind holds 
itself ready to say "no" the minute the suggestion 
passes the bounds of right and reason. The subject 
has willingly surrendered himself to the hypnotic spell 
for the amusement and instruction of his friends in the 
audience. But he will not deliver himself bound into 
the hands of his enemy. At the outset he has imposed 
that limitation upon himself. In the implied contract 



66 THE DUAL MIND 

between himself and the lecturer, he agrees to do certain 
harmless things upon provision that nothing actually 
wrong or improper is asked of him. If the lecturer 
violates the spirit of this implied agreement, the subject 
at once rebels. 

With even greater force it must be seen that this 
reasoning applies to the crimes against the virtue and 
innocence of women. The instincts of purity are so 
deep seated as to resist suggestion with a strength that 
the most powerful hypnotist in the world cannot suc- 
cessfully assail. In all the numerous cases in which 
women have claimed that they were led to ruin while 
under a spell which they could not resist, the most care- 
ful investigation has failed to show a single instance 
where the claim was proved to be well founded. It is 
a natural instinct of even the worst of women to yield 
herself with an appearance of reluctance and to seize the 
best excuse that occurs to her to explain her lapse from 
virtue. 

It is true of course that the power of suggestion is 
great and is still largely unexplained. The mysterious 
and dangerous attraction which some libertines have 
over women in itself may be due in part to unconscious 
hypnotism. Every attempt that is made to set a limit — 
to say where the influence of suggestion begins and 
where it ends — must necessarily fail. In the most 
trifling actions of every day life, suggestion plays a 
part. 

In the complexity of the relations between the sexes, 
the dominating masculine mind oftimes becomes a fac- 
tor to contend with. It is woman's nature to yield. 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 67 

It is only her sense of prudence and the effect of her 
external training which enables her to resist his en- 
treaties when they take the form of a command. 

Yet suggestion of this character is outside the 
domain or ordinary hypnosis, and it remains clear that 
the virtuous woman will never submit against her will 
to any violation of her purity, no matter how deep may 
be the hypnotic spell under which she is placed. An 
assault by violence is more impossible during hypnosis 
than during a normal condition. It is invariably found 
that when the objective senses are held in abeyance, the 
physical powers are stronger than they are when the 
subject is in his natural state. In this respect the same 
rule applies as in dementia or hysteria. It is a peculiar 
thing that the subjugation of the will seems to heighten 
all the senses and increase the physical strength. Even 
the moral nature is more powerful and more pure 
during hypnosis. And in case of a profound hyp- 
notic sleep Prof. Gregory has found that ''the 
countenance often acquires the most lovely expres- 
sion, surpassing all that the great artists have given 
to the Virgin Mary, or the angels, and which may 
be called heavenly, for it involuntarily suggests to 
our mind the moral and intellectual beauty which alone 
seems consistent with our view of heaven." 

It would be interesting to follow this line of thought 
into the domain of what might be termed speculation. 
The heightened beauty of the subject, his increased 
physical strength, his elevated moral tone, even the 
changed sweetness of the voice which has been often 
noticed, would almost warrant a conclusion that the 



68 THE DUAL MIND 

flights of genius and the subhme acts of heroism are 
due to auto hypnosis. 

The orator who holds his audience spellbound under 
the magic of his words is himself under the spell of a 
concentration which almost holds his objective senses 
in abeyance. All distracting externalities are forgot- 
ten. He no longer thinks of his gestures or the inflec- 
tion of his voice, or of whether his remarks are going 
to ''take" with his hearers. His absorption is complete 
and his enthusiasm passes to the audience, which weeps, 
laughs, or swells with righteous indignation, respond- 
ing to every change of his mood. In reality, has not 
the man partially hypnotized himself and then placed 
his hearers under the same influence ? It is all uncon- 
scious, of course, but it is the result of training his 
natural gifts of expression, until he is able to concen- 
trate all his powers to produce certain effects. 

An audience thus might be impelled to crimes of a 
certain character, under the belief that they were doing 
a heroic and noble deed. Thus Mark Anthony drove 
the Romans to avenge Caesar's assassination, and the 
over-wrought and hysterical mother drives the mob to 
lynch the negro who has assailed her child. These 
crimes, if crimes they be, are in a sense excusable, be- 
cause they are committed in moments of exaltation when 
the sense of justice, mistaken though it may be, is heigh- 
tened by a piteous spectacle either seen actually or im- 
pressed on the imagination. It was the pleading of the 
dumb wounds of Caesar as well as the persuasive words 
of Anthony which aroused the Romans to a frenzy of 
riotous indignation. 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION ^ 69 

It must be noted even here, however, that the orator 
is effective only as he has the sympathy of his hearers. 
He can heighten their appreciation of a truth of which 
they are already convinced, but so powerful is the effect 
of the auto suggestion that originates in the normal 
mind of the subject that while it may be accentuated it 
cannot be successfully opposed. 

It is easy for an orator to arouse the sympathies of 
an audience of Irish patriots when he recites the woes of 
their beloved isle, but not even Cicero himself could find 
enough honeyed words to convince this same audience 
that English domination was a thing to be enthusiasti- 
cally desired. Not even Daniel Webster, if he could 
return to the earth with all his eloquence undimmed, 
could persuade the people of the Pacific coast that orien- 
tal immigration is a thing to be desired. For the same 
reason, any repugnant criminal suggestion made by a 
hypnotist would be immediately overcome by the sub- 
ject's own auto suggestion lingering in his mind. 

Men are still largely controlled by their instincts, 
and while it might be possible for a criminal hypnotist 
to urge a criminal subject deeper into crime, it is prob- 
able that even in that case the subject's instinctive desire 
to preserve himself from punishment would be sufficient 
to overcome the suggestion to commit a crime toward 
which his own heart inclined. 

Another aspect of hypnotism and crime as related 
phenomena arises in regard to confessions from the 
"sweat box," and testimony procured' through hypnotic 
suggestion. Men have often been known to confess to 
crimes of which they were afterwards proved innocent, 



70 THE DUAL MIND 

and this fact at first glance seems to be a violation of 
the rule that the instinct of self-preservation is more 
powerful than the force of suggestion. Yet a deeper 
study of the question shows that the exception to the 
general rule is only seeming. It is not until he is tor- 
tured beyond the limits of endurance that the victim of 
the "third degree," or the inquisition will make a false 
confession. To escape the agonies of the moment he 
is willing to make an acknowledgment that may cause 
his punishment in the future, and in his instinctive 
choice between two evils, he takes that which at the time 
seems to be the lesser. 

Then, too, in certain natures there is a desire for 
notoriety that amounts to a mania, and men have been 
known to voluntarily appear and confess to the commis- 
sion of heinous crimes with which they had no connec- 
tion. In the old days many persons confessed that they 
were witches, even when they knew the punishment 
might be death. These cases, however, are evidences 
of dementia in some form, and their study belongs 
rather to the specialist in mental abnormalities than to 
the investigator of hypnotic phenomena. 

Attempts which have been made to wring the truth 
from reluctant witnesses by throwing them into a hyp- 
notic state have always failed. While it is the instinct of 
the subconscious mind to tell the truth, yet there remains 
the deeper instinct of self-preservation, and the secret 
which lies next to man's heart he will not betray upon 
any suggestion made through hypnotism. If pressed 
into a corner he will lie with a cunning which a normal 
man might envy, but if the cross examination becomes 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 71 

too persistent the subject is distressed and the result is 
that he quickly becomes restored to a normal condition. 

Even in delirium the subjective mind seems to stand 
guard to preserve the fatal secret which it means death 
or disgrace to reveal. In all the experiments which 
have been tried, no one ever yet has succeeded in per- 
suading the member of a secret order to reveal the 
slightest detail of his lodge work. The lesson of caution 
was so strongly impressed upon him at the time he took 
the sacred vows of his initiation, that he never after- 
wards, even in the ravings of insanity, betrays the 
secrets of his brethren to the world. 

It is therefore seen, in view of the foregoing, that the 
attempt of sensational writers and lecturers to connect 
hypnotism and crime together as dangerous factors 
must stand wholly discredited. The subtle instincts of 
the subjective mind remain obdurately beyond the realm 
of improper suggestion. Hypnotism cannot become the 
instrument of evil. The man who is placed under its 
strange powers will yield himself readily enough until 
you attempt to do violence to his moral standard, and 
then he is firm as a rock. The inner mind never sleeps 
and never relaxes its vigilance, and however powerful 
the hypnotist may be his control stops when he passes 
beyond the border line of externalities. He has dis- 
covered no influence strong enough to put the moral 
nature to sleep or paralyze the inherent sense of right 
and wrong. 

One of the commonest characteristics of persons who 
are possessed of gifts of the imagination, such as 
writers, painters, actors, etc., is a lack of power of con- 



72 THE DUAL MIND 

centration. The much abused term ''artistic tempera- 
ment," is properly used to designate this very common- 
place defect. Under whatever name, it has seriously 
hampered the productivity and injured the work of per- 
sons who suffer from it. Hitherto this has been sup- 
posed to an irradicable, constitutional tendency which 
could not be cured. Certainly it was far too subtle a 
mental disorder to be reached by the, ordinary methods 
of material science. Recent experiments however have 
shown that there is very real hope for the sufferers in 
hypnotism. 

Dr. John Quackenbos, the eminent New York physi- 
cian, who is one of the leading authorities on hypnotism 
in this country, in his book, ''Hypnotism in Culture," 
gives a remarkable account of the results he obtained in 
the treatment of persons who suffered from an inability 
to concentrate their thoughts. His experiments were 
made principally in the case of fiction writers, and he 
declares that in hypnosis he imparted to them, "a knowl- 
edge of the canons of narration, viz., the law of selec- 
tion, which limits the story-teller to appropriate char- 
acteristic or individual circumstances; the law of suc- 
cession, which governs the disposal of the selected inci- 
dents in the order of a climax; and the law of unity, — 
secondly, of the laws of construction in the case of the 
novel, its functions and technic, and its legitimate 
material. 

"This philosophy is readily grasped," he continues, 
"assimilated and utilized in post-hypnotic creation ; and 
the mode of instruction puts out of countenance the 
conventional wrestling with the precepts of a text-book. 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 73 

In the light of instantaneous apprehension, barrenness 
gives place to richness of association, the earnest 
thought and honest toil of the old method to a surprising 
facility, disinclination to select details, to zest in appro- 
priating whatever is available. Opportunity and mood 
are thus made to coincide, and the subject spontaneously 
conforms to the eternal principles of style. Under the 
influence of such inspiration, rapid progress has been 
made in the chosen field of authorship." 

Such evidence contributed by an indisputable expert 
should be convincing. The importance of this dis- 
covery to humanity may easily be underestimated. The 
great lament of all lovers of art and beauty for centuries 
has been that the great geniuses have given so little to 
the world. Their paucity of output has been, to a large 
extent, due to their inability to work steadily. Cole- 
ridge and Poe are notable instances. Both gave to the 
world work of inestimable value, but how poor in quan- 
tity compared with the wealth of their imaginative gifts. 
The reason in both cases was the same. For months at 
a time the authors of 'The Ancient Mariner," and "The 
Raven," would remain in idleness' and apathy, pitifully 
anxious to work but incapable of concentrating their 
minds on their labors. If they had been treated hyp- 
notically with the results achieved by Dr. Quackenbos 
and others in similar cases, the world undoubtedly 
would be the richer to-day by a number of masterpieces, 
eternal and priceless. 

It is undoubtedly true that a considerable number of 
the great works of fiction, plays, poems, pictures, and 
sculpture, have been executed under hypnotic influence, 



74 THE DUAL MIND 

which was unconsciously self-induced. As a matter of 
fact inspiration is really nothing more than suggestion. 
A beautiful woman is said to inspire a painter or a poet. 
The phrase simply means that she exercises a sugges- 
tive influence over his subconscious mind, and he works 
under that influence without exercising his conscious 
intelligence to any appreciable extent. 

The most magnificent feats in the world of art and 
literature have been accomplished while the actor was 
in an abnormal and genuinely subconscious condition. 
The absent-mindedness of men of genius which has 
passed into a proverb is of course simply a lapse of the 
conscious mind. It means that they are under the con- 
trol of their subliminal selves, or in other words in a 
state of partial hypnosis. 

Hypnotism has proved exceptionally beneficial in the 
case of actors and actresses. One of the hardest tasks 
which public performers have to undertake is that 
of conquering their diflidence or self-consciousness. 
Many instances are on record where well-known actors 
and actresses have come to grief at critical moments 
through being overwhelmed by self-consciousness. 
Oftimes many years experience on the stage has not 
sufficed to eradicate this defect, and it is related of 
Booth that to the time of his last appearance he suffered 
mental agonies whenever he stood in the wings waiting 
for his cue. Garrick and Macready are said to have 
suffered in a similar way. 

While stage folk are handicapped by self-conscious- 
ness there is nothing rare or peculiar about it. Stage 
fright is as common with veterans as beginners and is a 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 75 

perpetual source of pain and embarrassment to all Thes- 
pians. Hypnotism offers an absolute remedy. The 
disease is a simple one and yields readily to either auto- 
suggestion or the influence of another person. This 
has been proven by the experience of a large number of 
actors and actresses who have resorted to hypnotism as 
a remedy and found absolute relief therein. 

Hypnotism is a vast subject, and human knowledge 
has as yet but touched the borders of it. There are 
certain phases of it which are at present inexplicable 
but which present problems and possibilities which 
allow speculation to wander through infinity. The 
science treats of the relation of mind to matter, of the 
soul and the body, and it involves the tremendous ques- 
tion of man's immortality and the causes and nature of 
the universe. 

One of the most baffling and at the same time inter- 
esting problems which have ever confronted mankind 
is that of the dominance of certain individualities who 
arise here and there at long intervals through history 
and completely overshadow the whole contemporary 
world. Such men as Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, 
Shakespeare and Napoleon are phenomena which exist 
but concerning which there is no satisfactory explana- 
tion, save one which is offered by hypnotism. 

For over a century Napoleon's name has thrilled, 
horrified, and amazed the world. Whole libraries have 
been written concerning the minutest details of his life, 
and yet we are to-day almost as Ignorant of his real 
nature as if he had lived and died in the same obscurity 
as Shakespeare. In fact a book was published a few 



76 THE DUAL MIND 

years ago in which the author endeavored to prove 
seriously that no such person as Napoleon ever lived. 

This man, this great enigma, dominated his world 
and made the terror of his name felt long after he had 
fallen from his high estate and died in lonely captivity. 
But after all the babbling of the scholiasts has ceased 
the question still remains to be answered, ''How did he 
do it?" 

"Circumstances !" said Napoleon once, "I make cir- 
cumstances." Such words in the mouth of almost any 
other man that ever lived would have been the most 
foolish and empty boasting. With this man it seems 
to have been the amazing truth. Through the force 
of a mighty will he made one of the greatest nations of 
the world bow down and worship him almost as a god. 
How absolutely insignificant appears every other figure 
of his day beside him. He never failed until failing 
health weakened the master mind and inanimate nature 
conspired to bring about his downfall. 

But the most remarkable and significant fact of his 
whole career is that he contemptuously overrode every 
maxim and law which the wisdom of man had laid 
down for guidance in war and statesmanship. He 
undertook enterprises so entirely opposed to common 
sense that they seemed from their inception doomed to 
failure. Yet he triumphed not once but for long years, 
and in innumerable vast undertakings. It was the will, 
and the will alone which could accomplish such things, 
and the greatest genius would have been helpless if it 
had not been for the magnificent driving force behind. 

It is here that we find the heart of the problem. 



LIMITS OF SUGGESTION 77 

That Napoleon could dominate his fellowmen to so 
tremendous an extent is marvellous enough, but what 
explanation is to be given of the fact that he actually 
dominated circumstances ? He made circumstances and 
Prometheus-like defied the gods to change them. 

In the small and insignificant frame of Napoleon 
there lay a mysterious, intangible force which could 
make millions of men do his bidding, destroy mighty 
nations, and turn to folly all the wisdom which the 
world had learned in the school of experience. 

Hypnotism enters into this case inasmuch as the in- 
fluence which was exerted by Napoleon on those who 
came into his presence was purely hypnotic. His con- 
scious mind was so much superior to those of all other 
men that it broke them down and forced irresistible sug- 
gestions upon their subconsciousness. In a far less 
degree this may be seen in any circle. One individual 
always, dominates a group, especially when the group.ia„ 
harmonious. A man is said to have a strong person- 
ality when what is meant is that his powers of project- 
ing suggestions, either consciously or unconsciously, are. 
highly developed. 

The superstitious reverence with which the French 
peasantry regarded Napoleon all his life, despite the fact 
that he was ruthlessly draining their country of its 
wealth and manhood, is one of the most remarkable 
facts in history. A minor instance nearer home may 
be found in the manner in which millions of Americans 
of all degrees pin their faith on certain politicians. 
This is seldom due to their deeds, as they have had no 
opportunity to perform any, nor is it due to a belief 



78 THE DUAL MIND 

in their wisdom, for it is safe to say that a large pro- 
portion of their most devoted adherents are incapable 
of appreciating their policies or ideas, nor indeed have 
they any definite knowledge of what they are. The 
phenomenon is popularly explained by the phrase ''force 
of personality." When we come to analyze this phrase 
we find that it is in reality nothing more or less than 
will-power or hypnotism. 

In this connection it is well to remember the reliable 
accounts which have been brought back from time to 
time in regard to feats accomplished by Eastern hypno- 
tists. Many of the performances given by the Oriental 
fakirs are positively inexplicable save on the grounds 
that the adept had hypnotised an entire company simul- 
taneously. To take one example of a feat which has 
been performed so many times in the presence of repu- 
table and intelligent witnesses, that it would be folly to 
deny its accomplishment : The fakir, towards the close 
of his experiments, produces a rope which he coils and 
then flings into the air. The rope remains suspended 
as if it had curled around an invisible ring or hook. A 
boy assistant climbs up this magically suspended rope 
and when he reaches the top disappears into the air. 

Every attempt to explain this remarkable achieve- 
ment by talking of juggling, slight of hand, etc., has 
failed absolutely. As far as our present knowledge 
goes at any rate the only explanation which can be 
accepted is that the fakir has succeeded in placing the 
entire company in a state of hypnosis, and that the boy 
and rope are merely suggestions and do not exist in 
fact. 



CHAPTER VII 

TELEPATHY 

TO the objective senses distance, or space, interposes 
distinct limitations. We cannot see beyond the 
horizon, nor be heard farther than the sound waves 
carry the voice, nor feel the thing that lies beyond phy- 
sical contact. 

This limitation does not seem to exist for the sub- 
jective mind, which does not in itself recognize the 
physical obstacles of time and space. But the subjec- 
tive mind is open in a greater or less degree to the 
influence of the consciousness, and the free sway of its 
power is interfered with by the suggestion that space 
is an adverse element. We are handicapped by our 
habitual attitude, and it is difficult to overcome the 
belief that time and space have distinct limitations. 

However, when it is fully understood that space 
does not exist for the subconscious mind, there is noth- 
ing to prevent the operator from exercising his power at 
any distance he may desire. It is only the lack of faith 
— that true faith built upon knowledge — which prevents 
the telepathic transmission of impressions around the 
world. 

Hudson declares that he has mesmerized a subject at 
a distance of three hundred miles and under conditions 
which rendered oral or objective suggestion impossible. 
The power to mesmerise at a distance depends solely 

79 



8o THE DUAL MIND 

upon the confidence of the operator. The subtle cur- 
rents of the ether carry telepathic messages just as far 
and just as easily as they carry the wireless messages 
by the Marconi system. All that is necessary is a 
proper receiving and a proper sending station — that is, 
an operator with faith and understanding and a subject 
in tune to receive the message. 

The successful operator himself must be in a partially 
subjective condition in order to produce the phenomena 
of thought transference. Inasmuch as it is the subjec- 
tive mind of the percipient that is impressed, the sugges- 
tion must proceed from the subjective mind of the 
operator. The more completely the operator obliterates 
his consciousness of surrounding externals, the better 
results he obtains. 

These are not mere theoretical conclusions. Apart 
from trials made in the same room or adjoining rooms, 
twenty-one experiments were made in a certain case 
when the subject was at a distance of one half to three 
quarters of a mile from the man who hypnotised her. 
Of these twenty-one experiments only six were recorded 
as failures or partial failures. In fifteen cases the sub- 
ject, Mrs. M., was found in a state of complete hypnosis 
fifteen minutes after the mental suggestion was made 
by the operator. 

In the matter of hypnosis at a distance, results are 
more easily obtained if the subject is in the habit of 
being hypnotised by the operator. Where these condi- 
tions are present the suggestion has been conveyed 
telepathically for hundreds of miles, even without pre- 
arrangement. There is no question that the subjective 



TELEPATHY 8i' 

mind can inhibit the activities of the objective mind at 
a distance when there has been previous hypnosis. 

Instances of hypnotism by letter or by means of the 
telephone have been fairly numerous. There are not 
wanting instances of hypnotic sleep, superinduced at a 
distance when the objective mind never before had 
fallen under the spell of suggestion and was not con- 
scious of the fact that an experiment was to be tried. 

It is clear that the will power necessary to enforce 
telepathic suggestion may be exercised and even culti- 
vated. Some persons are gifted in that regard and 
others seem unable to exert the power, no matter how 
hard they try. Nobody ever has explained just what 
this will power is or how it is exerted. The compressed 
lips, the corrugated brow and the fierce, even piratical 
expression of the face sometimes assumed by those who 
believe they are putting forth a mighty mental effort 
is the farthest possible from the attitude of the success- 
ful operator. 

No mental or nervous strain seems to be required. 
The operator himself must be in a passive condition, not 
worried, but wholly confident that his suggestions are 
going to reach their object. 

That the subjective mind is distinct from the con- 
sciousness and is open to suggestion therefrom, is no- 
where more clearly proven than in cases of self-hypno- 
sis. Subjects who have been hypnotised often are so 
easily thrown into the state that often no suggestion is 
needed from a second party. Men have been known 
to hypnotise themselves without knowing it, by steadily 
gazing at some object, and there are those who can 



«2 THE DUAL MIND 

induce sleep at will by suggestion made to their own 
subconscious selves. 

Among the curious instances of self-hypnosis may be 
mentioned the case of a medical practitioner who in- 
structed his patients in the power. At his suggestion 
they were enabled to induce the state at a given signal, 
as for instance, by counting *'one, two, three, four," 
and the hypnotic sleep would terminate at any time and 
in any manner he suggested. 

When the subjective mind has control, the subject, 
of course, cannot be said to be fully normal. He is 
freed in a measure from distracting outside influences. 

As in all other faculties and powers of the man, the 
subjective personality yields to habit. By persistence 
in effort, one can acquire almost perfect control of him- 
self and of others. Daily practice should be resorted 
to, and little by little one learns to fix his attention upon 
any desired thing, — the mind ceases to wander from 
image to image, and the subjective mind will be found 
to respond more faithfully with each success. 

It must not be forgotten that the subjective mind 
beconies stronger as the body grows weaker. In 
extreme cases a kind of physical lethargy, or indiffer- 
ence is manifest when the man trains his personality to 
function on a higher plane. 

The Yogis, Mahatmas, and Masters in India volun- 
tarily resort to fasts and penances in order to cultivate 
their occult powers, as also did certain of the early Chris- 
tian martyrs and saints. As the eye of the flesh becomes 
dim the eye of the spirit sees more clearly. As physical 
desires are abandoned there is a corresponding growth 



TELEPATHY 83 

in metaphysical vigor. The adepts of the East seem to 
inhabit another world, so careless do they become of 
the mere creature comforts of this life. 

The West does not yet understand more than the 
mere surface of the mysticism of the East, but all the 
students of Oriental lore agree that the occult powers of 
the adepts are developed in a wonderful degree. 

No less a personage than Lord Roberts has declared 
that during the Indian mutinies the natives in some 
mysterious way learned all the English military plans. 
There was no system of espionage to account for it, and 
it is now quite generally conceded that the secrets of 
Great Britian were learned through some form of telep- 
athy or mind-reading. 

It appears that the subconscious mind is so trained 
that some of these Hindu experts throw themselves into 
a state of hypnosis and are buried alive for a number of 
days and then are taken from their coffins and return 
to normal life. They are not only able to send tele- 
pathic messages and influence other minds for a great 
distance, but there are apparently well authenticated 
instances where, while the body is in a hypnotic trance, 
they project their astral bodies for hundreds of miles 
and are able to materialize before unbelievers. 

It may be stated as an impressive and curious fact 
that telepathy is the normal method of communication 
between subjective minds, even in the cases where the 
individuals do not realize it and may in fact know 
nothing about the wonderful philosophy of hidden 
things. 

You meet a man or a woman and the impression you 



^4 THE DUAL MIND 

form is largely, perhaps wholly, subconscious. Whether 
you have a feeling of hostility or whether you are 
attracted in a friendly way, depends upon the subcon- 
scious intercourse of your two personalities. There is 
a kind of spiritual introduction which takes place. 

Most of us have noticed that upon a first meeting, 
perhaps without a word being spoken, we have felt a 
secret bond of sympathy and understanding with some 
stranger — as if we had met an old friend. But we sur- 
round ourselves habitually with such a shell of con- 
ventionalities and reserve that we smother this glad cry 
of the inner spirit at having found a congenial soul. 
We resist the friendly impulses and confidences that 
struggle to find expression. As a result, we lose the 
meaning of these subconscious messages, and often we 
find that after months of daily companionship, we seem 
to know and understand a friend less than we did in 
that first hour of meeting when his personality seemed 
to be illumined by our subconsciousness. 

This language of the subconsciousness is mostly an 
unknown tongue. We hear and understand a word 
occasionally, but for the greater part we live and die 
without realizing what a wealth of power lies hidden 
within ourselves. 

Yet the power of telepathic communication is as 
thoroughly established as any force in nature. The 
reason of the apparent rarity of its manifestations is 
that it requires exceptional conditions to bring its results 
above the threshold of consciousness. Something of 
the effects of the subconsciousness we feel always. We 
call it instinct, intuition, premonition. It causes us to 



TELEPATHY 85 

trust one of our friends, to shudder at another, to be 
unreasonably irritated with a third. More or less it is 
the monitor that suggests and controls all our actions. 

It may be taken for granted that telepathic com- 
munication may be established between two minds at 
the will of either, and some times indeed without the 
will of either. The subconsciousness is the only method 
or medium of telepathic communication. 

The London Society of Psychical Research has dem- 
onstrated beyond all question that telepathy is a scien- 
tific fact, that the power is possessed by all, and that it 
only requires proper conditions for it to become 
apparent. 



CHAPTER VIII 

TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 

THE conditions necessary for the exercise of tele- 
pathic power are now well understood. They only 
require the subjective or partially subjective condition 
of the operator, and his perfect faith and confidence in 
his power. The first is obtained by the simple rules 
governing the process as developed by Braid, as shown 
elsewhere, and the second comes with successful prac- 
tice. The power grows by its use, but may be com- 
manded by the suggestion of an expert. 

A state of perfect receptivity on the part of the re- 
cipient is desirable, as this creates the most favorable 
condition for the reception of telepathic impressions. 
This passivity simply means a suspension of the activi- 
ties of the objective mind for the time being. It may 
te a simple state of quiescence, which allows the subjec- 
tive mind to receive impressions and act upon them intel- 
ligently — that is, to interpret them. The objective intel- 
ligence is thus held in abeyance. 

Of all conditions, the most perfect is that in which 
the patient's objective intelligence is for the time being 
entirely suspended, whether it be through sleep or in a 
state of trance. It would seem reasonable that the clair- 
voyant condition of the medium is in the main telepathic. 
Natural sleep of course is the most perfect condition 
of passivity, but here the subconscious mind is not able 

86 



TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 87 

to convey its impressions to the consciousness, and save 
for confused dreams and vague and tantalizing mem- 
ories there is generally nothing left of the message upon 
awakening. 

Yet there are some dreams which seem directly tele- 
pathic, and are remembered clearly upon awakening. 
The following is an admirable and well established 
instance of a telepathic dream. 

A young woman, a relative of the writer, who lived 
in the country in the West, arose one morning and said 
to her mother and sisters: 

^T have just dreamed that L 's son was dead, 

and that he rode over to ask me to go to the house and 
help make the preparations for its laying out and 
burial." 

The family laughed at her, for the boy had not been 
sick, and as this neighbor lived several miles away, the 
call for her to help would be entirely improbable. 

Yet within twenty minutes after she had told her 
dream, L — rode up to the house and said : 

''Our boy died in bed last night. We cannot ac- 
count for it, as he had not been sick. We would like to 
have you help us make arrangements for the burial." 

All this was in a section of the country where there 
was no telegraph or telephone. In this case there could 
have been no possible way for the young woman to have 
received the communication in an ordinary manner. 
Yet she dreamed it and told her dream, which proved to 
be true even in detail. There could be no possible 
reason or desire for fraud. None of the family believed 
in spiritualism, but the fact of the dream was witnessed 



88 THE DUAL MIND 

by the mother and the two sisters of the young woman, 
and is as finally established as anything can be on the 
foundation of human testimony. 

Before the girl awoke, or probably when she was in 
the act of waking, the neighbor had just been setting 
out from home with the message for her. The agon- 
ized mother, her objective mind being in abeyance for 
the time being, had been able to send the message sub- 
consciously, to the girl friend, whose friendship was 
craved. It was a telepathic message, pure and simple, 
sent under circumstances which gave it force and clear- 
ness, and received and interpreted instantly. 

In this case there was no conscious effort either upon 
the part of the sender or receiver. When there is con- 
scious effort, or the telepathic conditions are to be 
created artifically, it is necessary that the transmitter of 
the message, first having as far as possible freed his 
mind from externalities, concentrate his attention and 
keep it upon any particular thought or impression that 
he wishes to convey to the recipient. No special mental 
effort is needed for this. In fact, if the operator ''tries" 
too hard he defeats his own purpose. There must be 
no strain, but a calm and steady concentration of his 
mind upon the message he wishes to convey, with the 
faith that it will be transmitted to the mind of the 
recipient. ^ 

The success of thought transference depends upon 
the vividness with which the operator can picture the 
thought in his mind. ''A thought is a thing," is one 
of the catchwords of the new philosophy, and it seems 
to be true in respect to telepathy. It passes where it 



TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 89 

is sent as unerringly as the arrow speeds from the bow 
of the Indian archer. If the mind of the receiver is in 
a receptive condition, something of the message inevit- 
ably comes above the threshold of consciousness though 
its force and clearness depend upon the condition of the 
recipient. 

Why do you suddenly think of an absent friend? 
He is thinking of you. Why does the mother know 
that her child is in trouble or danger? Why does the 
sudden illuminated smile come to the lover's face when 
some dim message from the loved one penetrates his 
inner consciousness ? The air is full of messages. The 
mind of a writer is leaping out to the reader, who will 
get the thought before he receives the communication. 

Experiments in thought transference or telepathy 
may be made by any one who has sufficient leisure and 
patience to observe the necessary precautions. Practice 
enables one not only to send messages, but to receive 
them. The basis upon which all these experiments 
should rest is a knowledge of the relation which exists 
between the objective and subjective minds. If we 
think of a thing we have seen before, a mental picture 
of it is presented. Indeed, we think in pictures. The 
written or spoken word in itself is an image, or a 
symbol. "Mountain" does not suggest merely that 
eight letters of the alphabet have been assembled in 
certain form, but it suggests towering peaks, verdure 
clad, precipitous, or snow-capped, whatever is the image 
of the mountain we have seen oftenest and loved best. 
''Mary" does not suggest a woman's name. It sug- 
gests first that particular Mary we have known best 



90 THE DUAL MIND 

and loved most, and then if the word stays with us our 
mind travels through all the range of Marys — the 
mother of Jesus, the Magdalene, the Queen of Scotts — 
a series of pictures, a panorama in which all the Marys 
we have known or read about appear before our minds 
in costume and character. 

It is this image which the sender of the telepathic 
communication has in his mind and projects to the 
receiver. It may not be received or interpreted cor- 
rectly, but somehow, the message goes, surely and 
quickly. 

William T. Stead of London, has found in his per- 
sonal experiments that he can send a telepathic message 
best by writing it. He has numerous friends with 
whom he can communicate, with perfect clearness at 
will. 

Mr. Stead tells recently of a young woman friend 
with whom he was to have lunch on a certain day at 
London. She was in the country near Haselmere, at 
the time, and he wrote a letter in which he told her not 
to forget their luncheon engagement. He did not send 
this letter. He merely wrote it, and thus fixed the 
image more clearly in his mind. 

While he sat in meditation before the note, some- 
thing impelled him to take up his pen and write the 
answer. \ 

"I am sorry, but 1 cannot come to London on Tues- 
day," said the young woman in the message which he 
was writing to himself. 'T have been ill," she went on. 
'T was attacked by a man on the train as I came down 
here. I was forced to fight to defend myself. I took 



TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 91 

his umbrella and broke it over his head before he ran 
away. He left the umbrella and I brought it here with 
me. I will see you on Friday." 

The next day Stead received a letter from the young 
woman in which she excused herself for missing her 
engagement and notified him of her intention of coming 
to town Friday. She did not mention the incident of 
her struggle with the man on the train, nor of the 
broken umbrella. 

When his guest came on Friday, Mr. Stead 
remarked : 

''Did you bring the umbrella?" 

''What do you mean?" she asked. 

"The one you broke when you had the struggle on 
the train," said he. 

"Yes," she said, the puzzled look on her face deepen- 
ing. "I brought it up to have it fixed. But how did 
you know about it? I have not told anybody. I had 
not meant to tell about it." 

Upon further explanations, Mr. Stead learned that 
the umbrella was her own, instead of belonging to the 
man who attacked her. There was this much of error 
in the message. 

It is true that Mr. Stead is inclined to believe in 
spiritism, and that he thinks some of the messages 
he receives come from the dead, but the incident 
given above seems to be a case of telepathy pure and 
simple. 

The strangest part of it is that the young woman did 
not mean to tell him of the trouble she had in her com- 
partment in the train. But she felt the message that he 



92 THE DUAL MIND 

telepathed to her. Her subconscious mind informed 
him that she would have to break the engagement they 
had, and in her desire to excuse herself she wished that 
she could explain the reason for her absentness and 
Mr. Stead in London received the word she longed to 
send but thought it wiser not to tell him. 

Mr. Stead, however, has been devoting himself for 
many years to the study of the inner forces of the mind. 
No man can learn these things at a single lesson. And 
in addition to the knowledge there must be a develop- 
ment of the power by constant, intelligent practice. 

He has cultivated the ability to hold on to a mental 
object or image with such concentration that it is not 
driven away and dispossessed by other thoughts. The 
image that he dwells upon becomes sufficiently dense 
so that it may be projected upon the mental sphere of 
others. He who cannot hold on to a thought and con- 
trol it at will cannot produce its reflection upon the 
minds of others. 

Most psychological experirnents fail, therefore, not 
because they are impossible, but because of the weak- 
ness of the operator. To convey a telepathic message 
the attention must be fixed. If the mind wanders from 
ijmage^ to image, and from thought to thought, nothing 
becomes definite enough to be received and interpreted^ 
by the one to whom the thought is sent. 

Under the proper conditions, telepathic suggestions 
are as powerful as are the oral suggestions of the hyp- 
notist to his subject. 

The secret of telepathic power is not to be explained 
entirely in words. The student may learn something 



TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 93 

about producing favorable conditions, and then it is 
only by continued experiment that he can reach effi- 
ciency. There must be perfect concentration, but it 
must be of a passive kind, and just that shade of distinc- 
tion must be learned by the operator in actual tests 
upon himself and others. If there is strenuous effort, 
the result is marred. In one case, too much concentra- 
tion produced hysteria, upon the part of the recipient, 
who was a somewhat highly strung young woman. 
The image projected by the operator reached her with 
such force that she could not receive it. There was no 
message that she could translate, but the force of the 
suggestion threw her into a nervous condition border- 
ing upon convulsions. 

The strong, persistent, prolonged thought, dwelt 
upon steadily or repeated at rhythmical intervals almost 
to the point of monotony, is the one that defines itself, 
takes form and substance, as it were, and reaches its 
object with the greatest distinctness. 

Any distraction that interferes for a moment with 
the thought, or makes it cease to be isolated, seems to 
destroy its force. The concentration upon one idea, 
image or message must be like that of the burning glass 
which gathers up the sun's rays and throws them upon 
one tiny spot. If it is moved, if it even wavers for a 
moment the cumulative effect is lost. Or the image 
may be regarded as photographic, only the mind of 
the recipient is like a plate that requires a time exposure 
for development. If the image moves, the message is 
blurred and worthless. It is only upon rare occasion 
when the mind is on edge that the message comes 



94 THE DUAL MIND 

like flashlight and prints itself indelibly upon the sensi- 
tive plate of the subconscious mind. 

Transmission of telepathic impressions may be aided 
by the voluntary self-absorption of the subject. If he 
shuts out all distracting thoughts and listens mentally 
his chance to receive the message clearly is greatly 
increased. 

All people have the telepathic power, and some are 
able to send the messages without previous training. 
They do this unconsciously, or it might be better to say, 
subconsciously, at times when the objective mind is 
partially paralyzed by fear, grief, or intense longing. 
There have been thousands of such messages sent in 
times of deep trouble or approaching death, and the 
loved one in a distant land, it may be, receives the im- 
pression with the suddenness and force of an electric 
shock. 

Some very simple experiments may be tried by the 
student of telepathy to prove how common this power 
is and how easily it may be exercised. The experiment 
of the playing cards has been tried often, and usually 
with success. 

Let the operator be blindfolded. In order to shut 
out every glimmer of light, a kid glove may be folded 
over the eyes and held in place by a handkerchief. A 
circle is formed inxwhich the operator joins, everybody 
holding hands as the children do when they play games. 

Select a card at random from a pack of ordinary 
playing cards, being careful that no other card is ex- 
posed. Place the card in plain sight of all except the 
operator, and let them fix their minds upon the card and 



TELEPATHIC CONDITIONS 95 

gaze at it intently while they wait in silence for the 
result. 

The operator should remain perfectly passive and 
tranquil, trying not to think of anything. He should not 
try to strain his mind in order to think of the card. He 
simply remains calm, waiting for a vision to appear. 
He soon begins to see indistinct objects floating in the 
darkness. These may change rapidly, and at first may 
refuse to take definite form, but soon, if the operator 
remains quiet and the assistants in the circle continue 
to gaze steadily at the card, these visions will assume 
some symbolic form that will enable him to name the 
card. 

The subjective mind is fond of allegory. It speaks 
in pictures and often its message must be interpreted 
when it reaches the threshold of consciousness. 

In one experiment the operator saw a single heart 
spot floating in the darkness unattached to anything 
like a card, and he ventured to name the ace of hearts, 
which was correct. 

Another time, a young boy was blindfolded and the 
deuce of diamonds was placed on the table in the center 
of a small circle. After two or three minutes waiting 
he saw the card in a round frame with perfect distinct- 
ness and called it positively. He mistook the number 
of spots on the six of spades, but knew that it was 
spades. Another member of the circle, when blind- 
folded, could see the card, but it was perfectly blank, 
and he was unable to guess at the color or the number 
of spots. 

What is known as ''taste transmission" often yields 



96 THE DUAL MIND 

interesting results when tried telepathically. Pieces of 
sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, etc., are placed in the 
mouth of the projector, and the recipient, who is blind- 
folded, is able to taste the same objects. So vivid is 
the sensation conveyed in this way that sometimes the 
blindfolded one is obliged to rinse the mouth with water 
to destroy the unpleasant taste. The transmission of 
a simple act of will, that is, a purely mechanical act, is 
sometimes easily performed, and the best results are 
obtained if the patient is kept in absolute ignorance of 
what is being done. 

One of the essential conditions is the partial or com- 
plete suspension of the objective consciousness, and the 
more complete this suspension is, the more pronounced 
will be the success of the experiment. 



CHAPTER IX 

MIND READING 

AS one of the simplest phases of psychic phenomena, 
"mind reading" is alHed both to hypnotism and 
telepathy. In the ordinary demonstrations, where the 
mind reader finds hidden objects by holding the fingers 
of an assistant, there is no great difficulty or mystery, 
and the faculty may be developed with a very little 
practice. 

The assistant knows where the hidden object is, he 
concentrates his mind upon its direction and location, 
while the operator, rendering his own consciousness pas- 
sive as possible, receives the impression and leads the 
way to the spot where the article is concealed. Actual 
physical contact is usual in these demonstrations, though 
it is not necessary. 

Public exhibitions by professional mind readers have 
been so numerous during the last dozen years that nearly 
everybody is familiar with the methods used and the 
results attained, and while there have been many ''fake" 
demonstrations, the truth of mind reading as a psychic 
principle is too well established tO' need proving. Even 
the worst fakers have a scientific foundation for their 
feats. They resort to fraud because they want to in- 
crease the effects they obtain to a sensational degree, or 
because they want to relieve the undoubted strain upon 
the mental and nervous systems which genuine mind 
reading causes. 

97 



98 THE DUAL MIND 

To the public, mind reading seems to be a great 
mystery, and to the student it seems a most difficult 
acquirement. A little practice will show the student, 
however, that the simpler feats may be learned without 
difficulty, and if one has a sensitive nature one can 
become expert with reasonable practice. 

It may be said at the outset that mind reading is an 
accomplishment of the subjective mind. It is a form 
of hypnotism, because the operator is under the influence 
of auto suggestion. By practice or by natural psychic 
endowment he is able to place himself in a mild hyp- 
notic state, a kind of a trance-like condition in which his 
objective mind is partially suppressed and he is thus able 
to receive impressions from the subjective mind of his 
assistant and translate them into action. It differs from 
the usual telepathic demonstrations only in the fact that 
the message comes mainly by the efforts of the receiver, 
and the sender is only an aid, rather than a principal. 

The card reading and kindred feats mentioned in 
another part of this book under "Telepathy," sometimes 
are pure mind reading demonstrations. Indeed, the 
dividing line between the two is too indefinite to be 
clearly drawn, both being phenomena of that dual 
nature of man's mind which we hope now is familiar 
to the reader. 

The first thing necessary is for the student to get an 
assistant with whom he is in sympathy, who will be 
neither frightened nor nervous, nor inclined to make a 
joke of the experiment. Real sympathy is inherent, 
and sometimes better results may be obtained with a 
comparative stranger than with one you have known a 



MIND READING 99 

lifetime. The laws of sympathy are not well under- 
stood. They have been called ''similarity of etheric 
vibrations," ''equal phases of development," "spiritual 
rapport," and other vague things, but the fact is that we 
do not know just why we instinctively recognize one 
man as a kindred soul, and never get over a spirit of 
antagonism toward another man. 

It is clear that there is harmony between the subjec- 
tive minds of sympathetic natures, and the theory of 
vibration is perhaps as reasonable as any other. With 
one person we are in tune, like two harmonious notes 
of music, and with another we are at discord if not 
positive antagonism. 

Some authorities believe an artificial sympathy may 
be created between people who are not actually opposed 
to one another by "rhythmic breathing," or other means, 
but for the beginner it is better to have an assistant who 
is naturally sympathetic. In a later phase of the experi- 
ments, when the student has learned to control his own 
mind and place himself at will in an attitude of complete 
receptivity, so little assistance is needed that almost any 
one will answer for the purpose, as indeed it is entirely 
possible for him to read the mind of an audience col- 
lectively and do without any direct assistant. 

The experiment at first may be of the very simplest 
character. It is a good plan to have the student care- 
fully blindfolded, and then he should close his eyes and 
banish from his mind all positive thoughts. 

Suppose he stands in the middle of a room which is 
in semi-darkness. There is a piano on one side, a sofa 
on the other. The student grasps the fingers of his 



100 THE DUAL MIND 

assistant. He may touch the assistant's fingers to his 
own forehead, or the hands may swing naturally. The 
method is not important, as only by experiment can be 
found the better way in each particular case. 

The assistant then selects the piano for instance as 
the objective point. He looks in the direction of the 
piano. He tries to communicate to the student, men- 
tally, his desire that they move toward the piano. The 
student himself must not strive. He must wait until 
he gets an impression from the other. If he makes a 
conscious effort to form an impression from his own 
mind he is merely guessing. 

Presently, if the student is patient and receptive, he 
will feel the impulse to move. He should set his foot 
forward carefully and slowly, and then wait. He may 
feel like turning to the right, or the left, or like going 
forward. Whatever the impulse is, he should not resist 
it, but should act accordingly. But if he tries to force 
or hurry matters he may become confused and lose the 
subtle connection of thought which directs him. 

In conducting these initial experiments, the student 
should be careful to avoid what is known as "muscular 
suggestion." This is the slight twitching of the mus- 
cles of the assistant by which some co-called mind- 
readers are able to get a "lead" toward the desired goal. 
It should not be\confused with mind reading proper, 
where the suggestion comes from the operator's own 
subjective mind or, if there is actual contact between 
the operator and his assistant, from the assistant's own 
subjective mind. 

In some instances, where the student is psychic and 



MIND READING loi 

the assistant is able to concentrate his mind on his 
thought, he may know instantly which way to move — 
toward the piano or the sofa. The suggestion may 
come to him like a flash. But in ordinary cases it is 
not clear. He feels the impulse to take one step, and 
then he waits for the next impulse. Gradually he turns 
toward the piano. At first he may have been moving 
in the wrong direction. As he nears the goal, leading 
his assistant, he becomes more sure of himself and 
moves forward rapidjy. 

It will be found in ordinary cases, where there are 
merely two courses of action to choose from, that the 
student will be able to select the right one two times out 
of three. After a while he rarely makes a mistake. 

The progress of the student now is a mere matter of 
practice. The psychic sense is a matter of develop- 
ment. The student learns to control himself, to receive 
the suggestion, much as he would learn any other art or 
science. Having mastered the initial principal, he is 
able to become an expert by continued application. He 
cannot expect to become an expert mind reader in a 
day, any more than he could expect to become an 
expert billiard player the first time he takes a cue in 
his hand. 

If the first experiment fails entirely, as it sometimes 
does, repeated trials will show where the fault lies. It 
may be that the student is unable to dismiss externali- 
ties from his mind. Or it may be that the assistant is 
unable to think clearly of the piano. His thoughts may 
waver from piano to sofa in the case suggested, in which 
instance, of course, the student would be helpless. His 



102 THE DUAL MIND 

mind would veer around like a weather-vane in a 
whirlwind. 

In case the student is reasonably sure that the fault 
does not lie with himself, he would be wise to choose 
another assistant. He might try three or four friends 
or members of his family, until he finds the one with 
whom he can obtain the best results. Having become 
able to select either the sofa or the piano, he can add a 
table, a chair, and other objects, so that instead of hav- 
ing to choose between two pieces of furniture he will 
have to choose between four or five. 

Now the assistant must bear in mind that a sense of 
direction is important, because the student must neces- 
sarily move if he wishes to go to a certain piece of furni- 
ture in a certain part of the room. It is not sufficient 
for the student to think of a chair, a sofa, or a piano, 
as the case may be. The blindfolded student needs to 
overcome his inertia by the suggestion to move in a cer- 
tain direction. If he starts the wrong way, as he is 
extremely liable to do in the first step, the assistant, 
must keep saying, mentally, "no, that is wrong; you 
must come this way." If the thought is distinct enough 
in the mind of the assistant the student is certain to 
feel it, and while he may group around in uncertainty 
for a minute or two he will at last go straight toward 
his goal. \ 

The details must again be left to experience. There 
are no two cases in which mind readers work alike. 
One man will move with the careful deliberation of a 
blind person, while another will literally run to the 
place thought of by the assistant. 



MIND READING 103 

The scope of the experiments may be gradually en- 
larged as the student becomes profficient. He may learn 
to select a certain volume from the library, or even to 
turn to a certain page or passage in that volume. He 
may find a pencil hidden in a vase on the mantel. He 
may open a safe to which the assistant knows the combi- 
nation, or do any other weird thing which would be 
totally impossible for him to accomplish unaided. 

In the course of time it will be easy for the student 
to perform any of the ordinary feats of the professional 
mnnd reader, but he probably will find that when he 
undertakes to perform the same acts in the parlor for the 
entertainment of a crowd of his friends, that his success 
will be uncertain. He will fail, perhaps, in a certain 
percentage of the experiments. 

The reason of this is that the presence of an audience 
makes the student nervous. It distracts his attention, 
and he is unable to place himself in the proper condition 
to receive the message. Also the assistant is confused. 
He is self-conscious, and spends his time thinking of 
what the spectators are doing and saying instead of 
fixing his mind on the object or idea he wishes to com- 
municate to the student. 

Here, as in the initial stages of the experiments, prac- 
tice is the only thing necessary to achieve the desired 
results. After a time both student and operator learn 
to ignore the crowd and to carry on their experiments 
as if they were alone. In some cases, indeed, the 
presence of an audience is an aid to the mind reader. 
It heightens his susceptibilities and increases his nervous 
tension. There have been some fairly expert mind 



104 THE DUAL MIND 

readers who could not work satisfactorily unless they 
had the inspiration of an audience. 

It is well, too, as the experiments advance and the 
student learns to use his power, that he change assis- 
tants now and then. It is not advisable for him to 
learn to depend upon a single helper. He should so 
train his own faculties that he is able to receive sug- 
gestions from almost any source, and in giving an 
evening's entertainment if he chooses an assistant at ran- 
dom from the audience, and then chooses another and 
another during the course of the program, he greatly 
increases the effectiveness of his own work and removes 
the possibility of collusion. 

It has been said that the repeated surrender of the 
consciousness to the suggestion of the assistant is a ques- 
tionable, if not dangerous, practice, and it has been 
pointed out that some mind readers have been seriously 
injured by the nervous strain to which they subjected 
themselves. 

If the student, however, does not take himself 
too seriously, he will not need to suffer any par- 
ticular harm from developing this faculty. There is 
nothing weird or ghostly about it, and it is a good thing 
to explain to the assistant as well as the audience, where 
public exhibitions are given, that no claim to the super- 
natural is made, x The experiment is conducted under 
a simple, natural law, and while it may be highly inter- 
esting there is no use in becoming morbid over it. 

There is a phase of mind reading, which sometimes 
is called intuition, which is of the highest value in the 
practical affairs of life. Some men possess it in a high 



MIND READING 105 

degree, unconsciously, and all may train themselves to 
a greater or less extent in the exercise of this faculty. 
Reference is now made to that ability to estimate human 
nature and human motives which comes literally from 
the power of reading the mind of those with whom we 
come in contact. To know when our companion is 
trying to deceive us, to know when a lie is being told, 
tb know when to trust and when not to trust — this 
knowledge is of value always. 

There are some men who seem able to detect a lie, 
however cleverly it may be told and bolstered up with 
specious circumstances. It is almost impossible to de- 
ceive them. The minds of their opponents as well as 
their friends are oftimes open books which they success- 
fully read at v/ill. It is probable that much of the 
science of phsysiognomy is based upon this subconscious 
recognition. 

While some are natural students and readers of char- 
acter, this faculty may also be developed, and if the 
student will hearken to his intuitions he will soon find 
that he is able to detect unerringly the falseness of a 
situation which might impose upon his logic or deceive 
his senses. The subjective mind is a monitor which it 
is well to heed. No matter what the lips may say, the 
subconsciousness tells the truth, and even the man who 
deceives himself by specious argument is unable to de- 
ceive his own soul. 

Even in the normal state, there are some forms of 
subtle thought-waves which pass from one human being 
to another, and which are as distinct and certain in 
their operation as telegraphy. The woman knows 



io6 THE DUAL MIND 

when she is beloved without requiring that the devo- 
tion of her lover be put in words. The man knows an 
enemy from a friend. No less an authority than Sir 
William Crookes declares that thoughts and images are 
transferred from one mind to another without the 
agency of any of the recognized organs of sense. 
Knowledge may enter the human mind without being 
communicated in any of the hitherto known or recog- 
nized ways. 

Sir William is not an occultist, but a recognized 
scientist, and his interest in mind reading, and its 
kindred branch, telepathy, is that of an honest investi- 
gator who seeks to find a reason for the phenomena he 
discovers. He believes the method of communication 
is physical and material, and in pointing out the prob- 
able course investigation should take to the Royal 
Society, he says: 'T will therefore confine myself to 
pointing out the direction in which scientific investiga- 
tion can legitimately advance." 

When this sort of communication takes place be- 
tween two minds without the intervention of words or 
the '^agency of the recognized organs of sense," he 
says that we have two physical facts — ''the physical 
change in the brain of A. the suggester, and the anala- 
gous physical change in the brain of B. the recipient of 
the suggestion. Between these two physical events 
there must exist a train of natural causes. Whenever 
the connecting sequence of intermediate causes begins 
to be revealed, the inquiry will then come within the 
range of one of the sections of the British association. 
Such a sequence can only occur through an intervening 



MIND READING 107 

medium. All the phenomena of the universe are pre- 
sumably in some way continuous, and it is unscientific 
to call in the aid of mysterious agencies, when with 
every fresh advance in knowledge it is shown that ether 
vibrations have powers and attributes abundantly equal 
to every demand— even the transmission of thought." 

This opens up a vast field for scientific inquiry, and 
the earnest student, who desires to carry his investiga- 
tion of mind reading phenomena into a realm higher 
than that of mere tricks for the amusement or entertain- 
ment of his friends, will find a cause worthy of his high- 
est endeavor. It is true, perhaps, that no field of scien- 
tific inquiry offers so much promise to the investigator 
as this. 

In an effort to make a partially scientific answer to 
the problem which he presented to the British Royal 
society. Sir William Crookes entered the domain of the 
physiologist and explained how the etheric vibrations 
might naturally pass without actual physical contact of 
the cells, and he touches upon the difference in the 
location of the cells during sleep and during the normal 
condition which bears directly upon our own well proven 
theory of the action of the subjective mind. "It is sup- 
posed by some physiologists," continues Sir William, 
*'that the essential cells of nerves do not actually touch, 
but are separated by a narrow gap, which widens during 
sleep, while it narrows almost to extinction during men- 
tal activity. This condition is so singularly like that 
of a Branly or Lodge coherer — a device which has led 
Marconi to the discovery of wireless telegraphy, as to 
suggest a further analogy. The structure of brain and 



io8 THE DUAL MIND 

nerve being similar, it is conceivable that there may be 
present, masses of such nerve coherers in the brain 
whose special function it may be to receive impressions 
brought from without through the connecting sequence 
of ether waves of appropriate order of magnitude. 

''Roentgen," he continues, ''has familiarized us with 
an order of vibrations of extreme minuteness compared 
with the smallest waves with which we have hitherto 
been acquainted, and of dimensions comparable with 
the distance between the centers of the atoms of which 
the material universe is built up. And there is no reason 
for believing that we have here reached the limit of 
frequency. It is known that the action of thought is 
accompanied by certain molecular movements of the 
brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable from 
their extreme minuteness of acting direct upon the indi- 
vidual molecules, while their rapidity approaches that 
of the internal and external movements of the atoms 
themselves." 

These suggestions, while they are only suggestions 
of the great scientist and he is careful to explain that 
they are not offered as fixed conclusions — ^are of in- 
estimable value to the student. 

The idea that the act of thinking produces a distinct 
molecular movement of the brain cells is so consistent 
with all known tjieories of psychic vibrations as to be 
accepted without question. And it follows, if these 
vibrations in the brain cells are of sufficient force to 
set the ethereal waves into motion, communication with- 
out words would be the most natural phenomena in 



MIND READING 109 

the world, for every brain that was sensitive enough 
to catch and record these etheric waves would get the 
message that was sent out by the brain in which the 
original thought was born. 

Thus every image which the mind creates, every, 
thought which comes into the brain with force and clear- 
ness would set up a disturbance in the ether, like that 
of a pebble which is dropped into a pool. The waves 
are of infinite smallness and so delicate that they are 
not perceived by the physical senses and yet they are 
not less real nor less powerful in their own realm than 
the waves which ride the surface of the sea when the 
wind blows a gale. 

There are many curious proofs of this psychic ele- 
ment which exerts its undefined influence upon the 
action of mankind. It has been noticed often, for in- 
stance, that a jury, locked up to consider some case in 
which the public mind is stirred to the point of hysteria, 
is influenced in some subtle way by the sentiment of 
their fellows, with whom they have no communication. 
A certain conviction that the man is guilty and should be 
punished, or that he is innocent and should be set free, 
gets "into the air" somehow, and without reading the 
newspapers or hearing the arguments of the streets or 
in the homes, this sentiment of the public passes through 
the walls of the jury room and the ''twelve good men 
and true" yield to it without being conscious of what 
has influenced them. 

The future holds much of promise to the student. 
Science has come to recognize the unknown world as 



no THE DUAL MIND 

real, and the things which, like mind reading, are the 
toys of our present generation will become the pro- 
found realities of the next. 

Having admitted that mind reading is a reality — 
that communication between minds may be carried on 
as Prof. Crookes says, in ''ways hitherto unknown," — 
scientists will now set themselves to discover the secrets 
of this communication. Sooner or later the great law 
will be found, and every student whose investigations 
carry him a step in advance of what is written in the 
text books becomes a benefactor of his race. The dis- 
coveries of the future will be in the world which now 
lies unseen and almost unfelt about uS' — the invisible 
but no less material forces which inspire men and impel 
them to thought and action. 

To most students, the elementary phenomena of 
mind reading and thought transference will be suffi- 
ciently absorbing. To them we would once more im- 
part a word of caution in reference to not carrying their 
investigations to the point of weariness and morbidity. 
The experiments are so fascinating to some minds that 
the student broods upon them at all times and continues 
them to the point of weariness. 

If it is found that the effort to perform even simple 
feats of mind reading results in brain fag or severe 
nerve strain, it should be discontinued at once and 
only resumed after the mind is perfectly at rest. There 
are ways of throwing off the results of this strain, and 
these should be cultivated. The rule works both ways. 
The student who has power to place himself in a state of 
receptive abstraction at will, should also have the power 



MIND READING iii 

to throw off this abstraction when the experiment is 
over. A Uttle exercise is advisable. A walk in the 
open air, or deep breathing by an open window for two 
or three minutes will be found sufficient in most cases 
to clear the brain and restore the student to a condi- 
tion of normal objectivity. 

So powerful is the principle of suggestion that it 
seems likely the experimenter is largely influenced by 
his audience. If he performs feats that seem to the 
spectators to be sensational or uncanny, their own sense 
of awe and mystery react upon him, and after he has 
finished his demonstration it is wise for him to relieve 
the strain by a wholesome joke and a hearty laugh 
which shows his friends that while he may have been 
in a weird realm for a few minutes he is now back to 
earth again. 

If the student finds himself unusually proficient in 
mind reading and has an inclination that way, he may 
turn his talents toward the lecture platform or vaude- 
ville stage, where unusual rewards are open to those 
entertainers who can ring some new changes on the old 
feats of mind reading. The public is inevitably attracted 
to the mysterious and will pay out money at any time 
to see things performed which they are not able to 
explain. 

It is on the stage, of course, that the temptation to 
resort to tricks to secure a more dramatic impression 
becomes almost irresistible, and if the student expects 
to fit himself for a public career he will not only have 
to have natural aptitude but must pursue his studies 
and experiments far beyond the lines here outlined. The 



112 THE DUAL MIND 

ordinary stock tricks of the mind reader will not be 
sufficient to entertain a modern audience. There must 
be some specialty, like that of Anna Eva Fay, which 
nobody else can do so well, in order for it to be worth 
while for the student to seek professional rewards. 

However, experiment for its own sake will be found 
worth while to the ordinary student. Mind reading is 
possessed of unusual fascinations, and the sense of suc- 
cessful accomplishment, after the student has passed the 
preliminary stages, will be found reward enough for 
the slight effort necessary to procure results. 

A word or two in conclusion concerning the "fake" 
feats alluded to previously, may not be amiss. These 
range from the simplest to the most complex, and some 
of them, known to be ''fakes," have not yet been ex- 
posed, so cleverly are they managed. 

The familiar performance of the mind reader on the 
stage while the confederate goes through the audience 
and selects various articles to be described by the mind 
reader, is simplicity itself, if it is desired to introduce 
a fake act. The form of the question suggests the 
answer. Familiar things are taken, and the code is 
carefully rehearsed and studied. It may be so large 
that it embraces a wide range of objects. 

''What is this, madame?" may mean a red necktie, 
and "Madame, what is this?" may mean a hat pin. 
Without the audience noting the various variations in 
the wordings and the different inflections, the clever 
confederate may be able to tell the alleged mind reader 
just what he has in his hand as plainly as if he said in 
so many words, "this is a lead pencil." 



MIND READING 113 

As we said before, however, most of these fraudulent 
feats are added either to save the mind reader fatigue 
or to increase the effectiveness of the act. Many of the 
performances are genuine, and in nearly every case 
there is genuine ability back of it. The student may 
convince himself easily that mind reading is a true 
science, and that it may be acquired with slight practice, 
so far as its rudimentary principles are concerned. 



CHAPTER X 

PHANTASMS 

GENERALLY speaking the subjective mind has no 
initiative outside of its own realm. It carries on 
its own functions intelHgently and arises to the occasion, 
adapting itself to unusual conditions as best it can. 
But when it becomes the agent of the directing objective 
for a certain purpose, it does what it is told, and no 
more. It is an envoy entrusted with certain powers, 
and it does not go outside of its sealed instructions. 

It would be manifestly impossible for the agent 
in conveying a telepathic message on a given subject, 
especially in a case of deferred percipience, to do any- 
thing more than convey the message. The delivery of 
the message concludes the transaction so far as the 
agent is concerned. When the communication rises 
above the threshold of the consciousness of the precip- 
ient and he begins to ask questions foreign to the sub- 
ject of the message, there is no one to answer. 

The ghost of the murdered king had a message to 
Hamlet which it could not deliver to Horatio and Mar- 
cellus, and to Hamlet himself the message was only in 
reference to the murder. 

''But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison house 
I could a tale unfold." 
Aside from the specific purpose of the telepathic vision, 
the phantom is no longer en rapport with the percipient. 

114 



PHANTASMS 115 

A telepathic communication is in a way as limited as 
a telegram where the sender has disappeared. The one 
who receives the message may ask all the questions he 
chooses on any subject, but he gets no reply because the 
original sender is out of reach. Its object being accom- 
plished, the phantom disappears forever. 

Another salient characteristic, which seems to be 
universal and to possess the utmost interest and im- 
portance in determining the true source of the phan- 
tasm, is that it possesses no general intelligence. That 
is to say, a ghost never was known to possess more than 
one idea or purpose, which it follows with the greatest 
pertinacity, but utterly ignores everything else. In 
rare instances where ghosts have been conversed with, 
they manifest perfect intelligence on the one subject that 
concerns their visit, but pay not the slightest attention 
to any other. Even kindred subjects seem beyond the 
grasp of the ghostly mind. 

These characteristics pertain to every form and phase 
of the visions which are tangible to the objective senses. 
Subjective hallucinations are governed by different laws 
and are not taken into account in this connection. 

It might be possible, if both the agent and percipient 
were in the proper mental condition at the same time, 
for them to hold a general conversation. In this case, 
the question asked of the apparition would be imme- 
diately referred to the original, and the answer would 
come back telepathically. This, however, would be no 
contravention of the rule in regard to the limitations of 
the subjective, and there are no authenticated cases 
where these favorable conditions have occurred. 



/ 



ii6 THE DUAL MIND 

In all reported cases the agent telepaths the message, 
and the agent takes cognizance of it by means of clair- 
audience, or by seeing a vision which illustrates it, and 
that ends the matter. The message is a thought of the 
agent projected into the consciousness of the percipient 
through the medium of his subjective mind. 

The vision is the embodiment of an idea or a thought, 
and it is endowed with the intelligence pertaining to 
that one thought and no more. Hence the astonishing 
limitation of the intelligence of ghosts. 

The ghost is generally clothed, and it is probable that 
these garments are put upon it by the subconsciousness 
of the percipient. In ordinary circumstances the gar- 
ments are those with which the one who sees the vision 
is familiar. If the ghost of a deceased person should 
appear in a winding sheet it would be because the percip- 
ient has that ghastly garment in his mind in connec- 
tion with the death of the agent. 

Another one of the well known limitations of the 
ghost is that it always wears an air of profound sadness. 
Nobody ever heard of a humorous ghost, and in the 
very nature of the thing such an occurrence would be 
well nigh impossible. There is nothing in laughter to 
create an emotion deep enough to project a thought 
form. The circumstances under which the apparition 
is produced — the emotions and desires which give rise 
to it — are necessarily of such a character as to project 
a profoundly sad thought. 

The phantom never changes its attitude or senti- 
ment, but goes on its predetermined line of action. 



PHANTASMS 117 

regardless of its surroundings, and utterly oblivious to 
anything which may be done or said to divert it. 

The life of the ghost, — if you will permit, the expres- 
sion — is in itself limited. Those apparitions which 
possess the greatest longevity, that is, which persist in 
appearing and reappearing under the same circum- 
stances, and in the same locality, are the subjective 
impressions of those who have died violent deaths. 

It is true that many of the best authenticated 
ghosts are those of people who have died at a good old 
age and in due course of nature, and there is nothing 
to distinguish one class of apparitions from another, 
but it is true that those who have met death by violence 
greatly outnumber those who have died naturally. 
And in a general way, so far as may be known, those 
who die naturally, and who afterward seem to appear 
as ghosts, have '^something on their minds" to com- 
municate to their friends or the world in general. 

The strength and persistency of the ghost seems 
inevitably to be in exact proportion to the intensity of 
the emotion at the moment of death — that is, the desire 
which called the ghost into being. When that desire 
is satisfied the ghost feels that its mission is accom- 
plished and fades away forever. But even if the desire 
is not satisfied, the ghost gives up in course of time, 
disintegrates and vanishes. 

In most cases the message of the apparition seems 
not to be for a single person, but is confined to a single 
spot. If there has been a tragedy it is rehearsed on the 
scene of the tragedy. If the house burns down or is 



ii8 THE DUAL MIND 

destroyed, the appearance ceases. Even if another 
building is erected on the same spot, the ghost does not 
reappear. It seems necessary for all the familiar set 
pieces of the scenery to be about it in order for the 
hallucination to materialize sufficiently to become per- 
ceptible to the objective mind. 

The terror inspired by the appearance of a ghost is 
due to two causes. In the first place, the ghost is sad, 
and its message is rarely one of good cheer. Its com- 
ing is generally the sign of disaster. In the second 
place it is regarded as a spirit, as the actual entity or soul 
of the dead reappearing from the land of shades. 

This last point of view has been dismissed by modern 
scientific research. The ghost is not a spirit. It is 
merely a thought form projected telepathically, a 
thought created in the mind by an emotion so intense 
as to cause that form to visualize. 

The very limitations of the ghost prove this fact con- 
clusively. If the dead man reappeared, he would be 
clothed in all his powers of intellect. He could inform 
the friend that he loves of all that affected that friend's 
welfare and happiness. It would solve the secrets of 
its prison house and promulgate truths of the most 
vital interest and importance to the whole world. 

But the intelligence and the purpose of the appari- 
tion, being limited to the single thought and emotion 
which gave it being, can never rise above its source. It 
is not a spirit, but a telepathic message so powerful that 
it may be apparently seen objectively. 

It undoubtedly may sometimes happen that in the 
case of the reappearance of a ghost to different persons 



PHANTAvSMS 119 

in the same household or on the same spot, that the 
appearance after the first time is not an actual appari- 
tion. The ghost of the ghost may be seen. By this 
we mean that the details of its appearance have been 
told and that the sense of expectancy and the power 
of suggestion causes its subsequent reappearance to an 
impressionable person, even after the "ghost has been 
laid." In the same manner hypnotic and epidemic 
religious hallucinations are brought into being. The 
original appearance may have been purely subjective, 
but the latter ones are due to verbal suggestion and 
expectancy. 

Even in cases where an apparition has appeared to a 
man and he has not spoken of it, it would seem natural 
to conjecture that his experience would be the subject of 
frequent and vivid reflection. He might dwell upon 
it so intensely as to cause it to reappear under the same 
circumstances. If his own emotion was distinct^ enough 
he could cause the scene to reappear upon the same prin- 
ciple as the original caused it to appear. 

The methods in which an apparition may voluntarily 
be made to appear without any particular stress 
of the emotions is shown in the case of the Indian 
fakirs, who have their subjective minds so well under 
control that they can command their services without 
abnormal stress. 

The magician forms an image in his mind and makes 
it perceptible to others by projecting it into their mental 
spheres. Most of the feats of the Hindu fakirs are 
thus explained. They have such power that they may 
cause tigers, elephants, etc., to appear at will before a 



I20 THE DUAL MIND 

multitude merely by forming images of these creatures 
in their own minds. It is probable that they begin by a 
process of self-hypnosis. As the thought takes form, 
and as the mental sphere extends, they may locate the 
images wherever they choose. 

What the spectator sees upon such occasions is 
merely the thought of the conjurer rendered objective 
and visible by his will. 



CHAPTER XI 

POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 

ONE of the mysteries of the subjective personality 
of man is its inherent power to create illusions or 
phantoms, which, whether real or not, may be so far 
substantial as to be visible to the objective senses of 
others. In extreme cases these phantasms not only 
appear, but they speak or write, or in some other manner 
manifest a decided degree of intelligence. They clothe 
themselves with a sort of individuality. 

The Orientals ascribe these materializations to the 
astral body, which they describe as being a body of 
man finer and far more subtle than his physical being, 
and invisible to the senses under ordinary circumstances. 
During sleep, or during the trance-like condition of 
complete hypnosis, they believe this astral body may be 
projected at the will of the subjective personality. It 
travels through space with the rapidity of thought, and 
under favorable conditions may be materialized at any 
desired place. In India there are many adepts who 
have this power. 

In order to appreciate the possibility of such 
manifestations, the reader must remember that the sub- 
jective personality is a separate and distinct entity. It 
operates under its own law and has its own intelligence, 
though it may be trained to receive instructions from the 
consciousness. 

121 



122 THE DUAL MIND 

If properly understood, the subjective mind becomes 
a faithful and obedient servant. The knowledge that 
you have such a mind should always be with you. Per- 
sistence in remembering this idea is the prime factor in 
subjective development. While it is true that mental 
constitutions differ, and that some will find their sub- 
jective minds respond more readily than others, it may 
be stated positively that all who will may call upon this 
wonderful side of their nature for help and encourage- 
ment by faithful study and practice. 

Faith furnishes the stimulus to the student, and as 
the faith increases, power grows and psychic activi- 
ties become more effective. If you will make your sub- 
conscious mind believe that it can do a thing you will 
find that the results will be marvellous indeed. In the 
production of hallucinations or apparitions by telepathy, 
sleep, or rather that borderland which lies on either side 
of sleep constitutes a most favorable condition. The 
trance-like state of partial hypnosis, which may be self- 
induced, will facilitate the transmission of these tele- 
pathic phantasms, and it is while the operator is in this 
condition that the most decided results are obtained. 

It is not well to make too great an effort to project 
your thought, but simply and calmly resolve upon your 
experiment, remembering that phantasmal forms are 
isolated and materialized thoughts. If you can hold on 
to a thought and isolate it from others, you may call into 
existence a form. You can cause the thought to clothe 
itself with materiality, as with a garment. If you can 
impart to that form your consciousness, you may make 
it to a certain degree conscious. If you can invest it 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 123 

with the element of psychic matter you may make it 
visible and tangible. With the remarkable power of 
the mind you can literally create apparitions. 

But few of us can hold on to a single thought for 
even one minute of time — our minds are so lacking in 
power of concentration, so wavering and flickering. 
Only when the will has become practically free will it 
be able to enter upon its full inheritance of power. Then 
the necessary condition of passivity can be reached, the 
attention can be fixed and will cease to wander aimlessly 
from one mental image to another. 

The statement will bear a hundred repetitions — that 
without faith nothing can be accomplished, and that 
the more perfectly the objective mind can be held in 
abeyance, the more perfectly the subjective mind will 
perform its functions. 

Power and skill come through practice. If the per- 
son who has not developed his psychic energies attempts 
to send forth his thoughts they will not reach the mark, 
but will become lost and scattered. But the person who 
has cultivated and strengthened his powers can volun- 
tarily create hallucinations in the mind of another. 

In tekpathic communication between two live per- 
sons, the vision is created and the intelligence is com- 
municated direct to the percipient. Under ordinary 
circumstances the thought seldom displays physical 
power, or becomes perceptible to the touch, for the 
reasons that the emotions and desires which call the 
thought into being are seldom of suflicient intensity, 
and the conditions are not so favorable in a live person 
in normal health as they are in one whose objective 



124 THE DUAL MIND 

senses are being closed in death. The object for which 
the thought form was created, being easily and quickly- 
accomplished, and there being no further reason for its 
existence, it fades away in accordance with the laws of 
its being. 

In most cases of telepathic hallucinations, the thought 
form seems to endeavor to reach the percipient in the 
easiest and most familiar way. For instance, in one 
apparition which appeared to a woman late at night, the 
vision was wearing the garments ordinarily worn 
during the day, and in which she was accustomed to see 
him, when in reality, as was learned afterward, at the 
moment the man was in his night clothes and in deadly 
peril of his life. Believing himself about to die he 
had cried out to the woman with his whole heart and 
soul, and she had been able to see him. In this case the 
intensity of the longing had caused the phantom to 
visualize. 

The vision was of the briefest duration, as usually is 
the case, and there was no message in this instance, 
save the impression the woman received that the man 
was in imminent danger. The fact that usually these 
apparitions are clothed as the percipient is accustomed 
to seeing them, and not as they actually are at the 
moment, is in itself proof that they are telepathic and 
not real visitations. 

More peculiar are the cases where phantasms have 
been seen by more than one person at the same time, as 
well as the cases where they have been seen under such 
circumstances as to leave no doubt that the percipient 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 125 

was in a completely normal condition at the moment of 
the appearance of the vision. 

Sometimes, indeed, an apparition intended for one 
particular person may not be seen by that person at all, 
but is perceived by another who is present and who is 
naturally more psychic or who may temporarily be in 
a more favorable condition to receive telepathic im- 
pulses. In special instances the one who has seen the 
vision has been a perfect stranger both to the percipient 
and to the sender, whose image is seen. 

Often when the hallucination has been seen by a 
stranger it is not recognized as any person he has ever 
seen, and sometimes it assumes a grotesque form, bear- 
ing no resemblance to the original. It is seen merely 
because the percipient is a ''sensitive" — that is, one 
whose organization is so adjusted as to render him 
peculiarly impressionable to telepathic impulses. 

The fact that hallucinations or phantoms are seen by 
others than those to whom they come with messages 
may be accepted as a proof of their reality. 

Sometimes the vision, or hallucination, becomes per- 
ceptible instantly, but more frequently it is of slow 
growth. It comes out of the misty half light, gradually 
assumes form and shape, and then as gradually fades 
away. Sometimes, indeed, it is not materialized and 
does not become perceptible to the objective senses until 
some hours after the sending forth of the original im- 
pulse. It seems to depend altogether upon the poig- 
nancy and clearness of the thought and the receptive 
condition of the one who receives the message. 



126 THE DUAL MIND 

Whether it is initiated by conscious telepathic im- 
pulse, or is purely subjective in its origin, it seems in 
most cases that we have to deal with a purely 
contagious hallucination. It may even be trans- 
ferred from the original percipient telepathically to 
others in his company at the time. In some cases, as 
suggested by Mr. Gurney, it seems permissible to con- 
jecture that the minds of all the percipients, where the 
vision is seen by many, have been directly influenced by 
the agent, and that subsequently an overflow from the 
mind of one of the percipients may have served to rein- 
force the original impulse and determine its exact 
moment, just as the current regulates the exact second 
of striking in electrically synchronized clocks. It is 
reasonable to suppose, too, that the minds of all the 
recipients may react each upon the other, thus giving 
cumulative force to the original impulse. 

There is little doubt that the power resides in all 
human beings, to a greater or less degree, to create such 
images, their strength and clearness of course depend- 
ing upon the individual's ability to concentrate the mind 
and direct the force of the impulse. The man who can 
fix his mind for a certain length of time unwaveringly 
upon any mental picture is able to photograph it, as it 
were, and influence the minds of others to such an extent 
that they are able to see it. The phenomena of so-called 
spirit photography amply demonstrates the fact that 
visions can be created of such tangible character that 
they can be caught and fixed upon the photographic 
plate. The fact that these apparitions may be photo- 
graphed when they cannot be seen is explained by the 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 127 

fact that the sensitized plate is cumulative. The eye 
sees instantaneously, but the longer the plate in the 
camera is exposed to a certain object the more distinctly 
it is reproduced. Stars, for instance, which may not 
be seen can be photographed, their faint light gradually 
making an impression on the plate. 

These mental images taken by the photographer, 
however, may not be classed as real apparitions, which 
appear under circumstances not favorable for picture 
taking. There is at present but little satisfactory or 
conclusive evidence that an apparition has ever been 
satisfactorily weighed or photographed. In many of 
the most astonishing feats of the conjurer, especially of 
the Indian fakir, the elements of suggestion and imagi- 
nation are brought into service to aid in producing the 
illusion. 

The complete independence of the subjective mind 
is shown nowhere more clearly than in the undoubted 
fact that telepathic visions may not only be sent but 
received during sleep. They may be sent when the 
agent is asleep, and the percipient awake, or even when 
both are asleep. 

We do not refer to those telepathic messages which 
are constantly being exchanged between subjective 
minds without the volition and even without the knowl- 
edge of the communicants. We speak of, voluntary, 
definite messages which the agent wishes to send to 
certain individuals, for certain purposes. 

Before he sleeps — and this may be either natural 
sleep or the sleep or hypnosis — the experienced and ex- 
pert agent should strongly will, direct and desire his 



128 THE DUAL MIND 

subjective entity to convey the necessary suggestion, in- 
fluence or impression to the sleeping patient. This com- 
mand should be as clear as if the master said to his ser- 
vant, ^'1 am going to sleep now, and while I am sleep- 
ing you will transact certain business for me," and so 
obedient is the subjective mind that it does what it is 
told. 

If the receiver of the message is asleep at the time 
the impression comes, he dreams of the things the agent 
desires. 

The condition of natural sleep is naturally the most 
perfectly passive condition attainable, because all the 
objective senses are locked in slumber, and the sub- 
jective mind is free to act in accordance with the laws 
which govern it. The subjective mind is always most 
active during sleep, for in itself this mind never wearies 
and never sleeps. If it should fail in its duty for one 
moment the heart would cease to beat, the breathing 
would stop, the nervous system would be paralyzed, and 
death ensue, for it is the subconsciousness that carries 
on all the processes of life. 

The secret of success lies in the fact that the operator 
should becom.e accustomed to regarding his subjective 
self as a distinct entity that will obey his will, and then, 
just as he falls asleep he should concentrate his thoughts 
and give a last direct command to his subjective mind 
regarding the work to be done during the night. 

There are many ways in which the subjective mind 
becomes dominant and active aside from natural sleep, 
or deliberately produced hypnosis. Diseases of vari- 
ous kinds, particularly those of the brain or the nervous 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 129 

centers, and intense febrile excitement, frequently cause 
the total or partial suspension of the objective mind 
and excite the subjective mind to intense activity. 



PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD, OR GHOSTS 

To the modern scientific investigator, the ghost has 
a real foundation. These apparitions which have terri- 
fied the timid and the superstitious during all ages of 
the v^orld, were for a long time dismissed by the earnest 
student as being mere fancies, but it is now acknowl- 
edged that certain impalpable shapes resembling persons 
deceased do from time to time appear to the living. 

They are often seen as plainly as the objective reality 
could be seen, and events are depicted in visions, with 
all the characters and actors present, as perfectly as the 
reality itself. 

It is worthy of notice that generally all phantasms 
of the dead are of those who have died under circum- 
stances of great mental stress or emotion. 

The murdered man feels at the supreme moment an 
intense desire to communicate the circumstances of his 
tragedy, and he conceives the thought of reproducing 
the scene on the spot until its significance is understood 
and the slayer brought to justice. Perhaps he expires 
with this thought on his mind. It is his last command 
to his subliminal self, and the suggestion is so strong 
that it is carried out. The result is a haunted house, 
and those whose nerves are strong enough to withstand 
the shock may nightly witness a reproduction of the 
tragedy. This may continue for days, weeks, or even 



130 THE DUAL MIND 

months but invaribly ceases when the object which led 
to its creation is accompHshed. 

But these ghosts are not spirits of the dead. They 
are nothing more or less than intensified telepathic vi- 
sions. The difference between a telepathic vision trans- 
mitted from one living man to another, and a phantom 
or ghost of a person deceased, is a difference of degree, 
and not of kind; of species, not of genus. Both are 
created by the subjective mind, and both are created for 
the purpose of conveying a message. 

The phantom is produced under the most favorable 
conditions. The dying man's senses are preternaturally 
keen. Within a moment, it is said, his whole life 
passes before him in review. He reaches an emotional 
height of the greatest sublimity, and if death has been 
by violence, his last thought is of necessity of the most 
intense character. His desire to acquaint the world, or 
some particular person in the world, of his secret 
''taking off," is overwhelming. The dying see clearly, 
and some of the mind's greatest activities take place at 
the timx of demise, especially if death is sudden and 
unexpected. 

The circumstances under which the wraith appears 
is usually proof that it is a telepathic vision rather than a 
real appearance of the dead one. A man who was 
away from home on a long journey suddenly saw his 
wife in her own room in the housedress which she had 
been wearing on the day he last saw her, when as he 
afterward learned, at the moment of the vision she was 
in a railroad wreck far away, having been called upon to 
go to her mother's home in a distant city, and being 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 131 

en route at the time. It is probable that at the moment 
of the collision she longed intensely for him and his 
subjective mind received the impression instantaneously 
allowing him to become conscious of the fact by creat- 
ing the vision which he saw. 

It is probable that all houses in which men have lived, 
loved, and died, are actually ''haunted." The human 
dramas which have been enacted there are reproduced 
over and over, but few of them are intense enough to 
be visualized, and few persons are sufficiently sensitive 
at normal times to see them. The ghostly scene itself 
must be sufficiently materialized to refract the light 
before it is visible to the normal eye. But those who 
are keenly alive to psychic impulses are susceptible to 
these influences to a remarkable extent. They know 
that certain rooms depress them, and that certain houses 
make them sad, but usually they are ignorant of the 
fact that the atmosphere is surcharged with the ghosts 
of dead emotions. 

A simple explanation of the familiar phenomena of 
ghostly apparitions at the time of death, when they 
appear to a person far distant, is that at the time of 
dissolution, the imprisoned will becoming free longs 
to acquaint the loved one with the last messages of the 
dicing and the desire is so strong that the thought 
becomes visible to the distant one who receives the 
message by seeing the vision. 

Many cases are recorded where a sudden and in- 
tense emotion — for instance, a desire to see a certain 
person — has caused the will to become so active as to 
project itself from the physical body with such force 



132 THE DUAL MIND 

that the thought form becomes condensed — and the 
body of the sender is materialized to such an extent 
that it becomes visible. 

This phenomenon does not appear difficult to the 
intelligent psychologist. He is quite willing to recog- 
nize that the whole apparition — clothes and all — is an 
hallucination, as Meyers says, veridical, but not real. 
He does not require to believe that the spirit is present 
where it is seen, any more than he supposes the tele- 
pathic phantasms are real as seen. The telepathic vision 
frequently fuses with some memory of the subject, and 
the case is the same with apparitions of the dead. 

Every thought or emotion is telepathic to a greater 
or less extent. It projects itself in direct proportion to 
its force and clearness, and is effective according to the 
power exercised upon the subjective mind when it is 
projected. It goes where it is sent, and lives as long as 
its vitality lasts. 

Thus the world is peopled by thoughts — invisible 
ghosts which have not force enough to become pal- 
pable and yet exercise more or less influence upon the 
people of the world. 

Every man surrounds himself by a mental atmos- 
phere, depending upon the vigor and clearness of his 
intelligence. And this mental atmosphere clings to 
the man's habitation to a certain extent. It is found in 
houses, and corresponds to the mental conditions of 
those who have inhabited them. 

Even the dullest minded and most sluggish person 
feels the depressing mental atmosphere of a tramp's 
lodging-house, and there are many sensitive, high- 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 133 

strung people who, upon moving into a strange house 
are influenced at once by the mental attitude of those 
who formerly dwelt there. This is especially noticeable 
where the former inhabitants were the victims of any 
great sorrow or strong emotion. 

This mental atmosphere of a house may cling to it 
for years, and frequently is so strong and antagonistic 
as to cause the newcomer to vacate the premises. No 
ghost is seen or heard, but the invisible ghosts of the 
place exert an influence which can be felt and cannot be 
thrown off. 

Doubtless many such experiences may be attributed 
to suggestion. The person is influenced by the knowl- 
edge of some tragic event which happened in a 
certain spot, and his own shuddering thought of the 
details of the tragic scene are sufficient to render the 
spot unbearable to him. But many cases of this char- 
acter may not be explained thus — cases where the tragic 
story of the place was not known to the new inhabitant. 
The influence of these invisible ghosts is felt regardless 
of the fact that the former inhabitants of the place may 
be still alive, and may have recovered from the effects 
of the tragic sorrow and heartache they felt there. 

It is entirely reasonable to suppose that these invis- 
ible ghosts, or telepathic hallucinations, are seen by 
the subconscious mind. They have not force enough 
to rise above the threshold of consciousness, but they are 
just as real as the apparitions that are seen, being of 
the same character and differing only in strength of 
manifestation. 

The thoughts that haunt a house need not be of an 



134 THE DUAL MIND 

unpleasant nature. Each blessing that comes from the 
heart lingers there, as well as each curse and each cry 
of sorrow. 

THREE KINDS OF TELEPATHY. 

Thus there appears to be telepathic communica- 
tion between two living persons, where the thought 
form is sent directly from the one and is received by 
the other only. This communication may be either by 
means of a mental impression, a dream or an actual 
vision which disappears as soon as it delivers its 
message. 

In the second case a thought form may be sent by 
a dying person to the world at large to communicate 
some fact of momentous import regarding the sender. 
It is sometimes made visible to the objective senses 
and is always confined to one locality, which it haunts 
until its object is accomplished, or failing this until 
the locality is destroyed or changed, or until the lapse 
of time causes it to lose it vitality when it disintegrates. 

The third form of telepathy partakes of the char- 
acteristics of both the first and the second. It is created 
by a live person, but is not sent to any individual, but 
is confined to a certain locality and impresses whoever 
occupies the house or room it haunts. 

In the secoiM instance we have abundant evidence 
of clairvoyance, in which the transmitted idea does not 
reach the percipient, as the meager result of a crisis, 
but spontaneously and with great fullness of detail, 
and often with great ease and rapidity, as the outcome 
of special receptivity on the part of the percipient. 



POWER TO CREATE PHANTASMS 135 

Such clairvoyance — and the word is used in its general 
sense to include other impressions than those upon the 
sense of sight — occurs in its most striking form when 
the percipient is under the influence of hypnosis. 

It must be remembered, however, that while the 
vision which brings the message may disappear at once 
and forever, in whatever degree or manner the percip- 
ience may have been received, it is registered perma- 
nently in the subjective mind, and is never absolutely 
lost. Its recognition may be deferred, but sooner or 
later the message will be delivered and understood. 

The obsession and possession of spirits, as believed 
by the ancients may be attributed in a manner to the 
allied influences of hypnotic suggestion and telepathy. 
Those who easily entered the subjective condition and 
became subject to psychic influences they could not 
understand or explain, but believed thoroughly that they 
were possessed by devils. 

The telepathic power does not seem to be confined 
exclusively to man, but seems to be possessed by the 
lower animals as well, only in a lesser degree. Many 
people have the power, which may be exerted at certain 
times and under favorable conditions, to influence 
animals. Horses and dogs, especially, which have been 
in the habit of subjecting themselves to man's control 
often give unmistakable evidences of sensing phantoms. 
They crouch and tremble with fright, and undoubtedly 
perceive phantasms or find themselves subject to 
influences not preceptible to the human beings who are 
with them. 



CHAPTER XII 

SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 

MAURICE MAETERLINCK, who has done so 
much to interpret psychic phenomena in terms of 
science, says that in all moments of imminent physical 
peril the subconscious mind acts with magical quickness 
in the effort to save the body from harm. Its efforts 
are just as instinctive and involuntary as the closing 
of the eyelids when danger threatens the eyes. 

In many cases the subconscious mind is able to warn 
the objective senses of the approach of danger, and 
these warnings are called premonitions. It is reason- 
able to suppose that these warnings are always given, 
though in most cases they do not rise to the realm of 
consciousness. 

'The subjective mind, not being limited by time and 
space, seems able to exercise what might be called a 
prophetic faculty. It senses the danger which threatens, 
and uses its best effort to warn us. If we cannot per- 
ceive or do not heed the warning, it tries to save us. 

In every man's experience there are many instances 
of these premonitions. Sometimes they are so sharp 
and clear that we act upon them; more often they are 
vague feelings of uneasiness or depression — a dim sense 
that "something is going to happen." 

A story has recently come from England which illus- 
trates the premonition in the most vivid way. A gen- 

136 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 137 

tleman was dozing in a seat by the window of a railway- 
car as the train dashed through the darkness. He sud- 
denly found that another train was racing along beside 
him. He saw his double sitting by the window in the 
other train. He thought it was a reflection of himself, 
but the image remained and caused him such a feeling 
of discomfort that he opened his own window and 
looked out. At the same moment the window of the 
other train was opened and his double looked out. 

"Leave this train at the next station," was the 
strange command he heard from the lips of the shadowy 
man in the other car. 

Then the vision vanished. He left the train as he 
had been commanded, and it was wrecked just beyond 
the next station. This incident is extreme, and it has 
not been sufficiently well authenticated to be accepted 
as true. If it is true, however, it may be presumed that 
many of the other passengers received similar warnings 
of the coming wreck, only they were not in a proper 
psychic condition to receive them. In their cases, the 
premonition did not reach the threshold of con- 
sciousness. 

Often these warnings come in the form of dreams, 
during natural sleep, and in most cases where danger 
threatens during sleep, the subconscious mind makes a 
supreme effort to awaken the one who is threatened. 

In moments of imminent peril, when the faculties 
are paralyzed by terror, often the subjective mind takes 
charge of the situation, and the man saves himself by 
involuntary action. He dodges or defends himself as 
the case may be without any conscious effort of the 



138 THE DUAL MIND 

will. While in many cases the subjective mind is unable 
to rescue us, often its action is effective and we owe 
our safety to its promptness. 

Some events which we are accustomed to attribute 
to the mysteries of fate may reasonably be accredited to 
the subjective mind. The revolver that has been fired 
a thousand times without a failure has often been known 
to snap harmlessly when pointed at a man's heart. We 
cannot understand ho^y the faithful guardian of our 
safety has rendered the weapon ineffective at that criti- 
cal moment, but it almost seems as if an invisible thumb 
had been thrust beneath the hammer to prevent the 
discharge. 

On the other hand, it seems at times as if the sub- 
jective mind leads us into danger with a craftiness which 
seems absolutely suicidal — as if the time for our depar- 
ture from the world had come and was recognized. 
Then the stray bullet strikes us, we are led beneath the 
falling wall, or the slightest accident is attended with 
fatal consequences. 

It appears unreasonable to attribute all these mys- 
teries of life and death to mere coincidence, and why 
may we not properly regard the subjective self as the 
arbiters of our destiny so far as the physical functions 
and the welfare of the body are concerned ? 

What is pain, for instance, save the voice of the sub- 
consciousness calling our attention to the fact that 
there is a derrangement of some organism which is in 
need of repair? 

Cases of somnambulism furnish the most striking 
examples of the guardianship of the subjective mind. 



\^ 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 139 

The sleep walker will perform the most perilous actions 
in perfect safety. A woman who was delicately nur- 
tured, and without any athletic training, was known to 
climb out of her chamber window during her sleep and 
go up the lightning rod with the grace and ease of a 
squirrel ascending a tree. Then she would balance 
herself on the roof of the building like a trapeze per- 
former, and return to her bed in safety without waking. 
The feats she performed would have been absolutely 
impossible had she been in a normal condition. 



CLAIRVOYANCE 

Although clairvoyance is one of the commonest 
manifestations of psychic power, the laws which govern 
it are not so well understood as those governing hyp- 
notism, mental therapeutics and telepathy. It may be 
defined as the power to see with the eye of the soul. 

Clairvoyance is akin to telepathy in some important 
particulars, as indeed it is akin to all psychic phenomena 
in the sense that it is a manifestation of the subjective 
mind. Yet there are some distinctions to be made in 
the case of clairvoyance. 

In telepathy, two minds are required. There must 
be a receiver and a sender, as in the case of wireless 
telegraphy. In clairvoyance, however, only one mind 
is actively engaged. The clairvoyant, while in a state 
of trance, or with the objective faculties partially in 
abeyance, is able to see the things that are transpiring 
at a distance. It may be either a distance in space, 
merely, or it may be a distance in time. 



I40 THE DUAL MIND 

When the phenomena is disengaged from the more 
or less fraudulent field of professional mediumship, it 
appears that actually the subjective mind, and perhaps 
the astral body, is projected to a distance, where it sees 
what is going on and brings back a more or less intelli- 
gent report to the objective faculties. 

Sometimes certain physical stimuli are needed, as 
for instance, gazing at a crystal, in order to develop 
the clairvoyant power, but there are those who possess 
this power naturally, and they have been able to "see 
things" invisible to the ordinary physical eye from the 
time they were children. 

In certain mediums this power is developed to a 
high degree, but the fact that illusions are nearly always 
intermingled with the actual things seen has rendered 
the power of little practical value because of its unreli- 
ability. It is not only that the mind which goes forth 
to witness a desired scene is impressed by other scenes, 
but also that the interpretation of the scenes to the 
physical senses is in general, vague and uncertain. 

It is probable that our minds take many strange 
journeys when we sleep naturally, as well as when we 
are in the hypnotic trance. But the subjective mind 
is seldom able to successfully report what it sees. Un- 
less the conditions are very favorable, the confusion 
that is apt to arise when the subjective mind attempts 
to communicate with the objective seems to be inten- 
sified in the case of clairvoyance, and the impression 
is seldom clear or reliable. Genuin e clairvoyance is 
seldom seen, as it is a manifestation of one of the 
highest powers of the subjective mind. 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 141 

In order to render the clairvoyant power effective, 
it seems necessary for the will to accompany the sub- 
conscious mind upon its journey, so that the things 
seen may be clearly impressed and afterward communi- 
cated to the normal mind. 

It is probable that the clairvoyant sense is inherent in 
all men, but it is generally the sensitive or the abnormal 
person who is able to exert it in such a way that the 
visions rise above the threshold of consciousness in a 
comprehensive manner. 

CLAIRAUDIENCE 

One of the rarest and most interesting phenomenon 
of the psychic world is clairaudience, which has been 
defined somewhat vaguely as ''the power to hear the 
spoken words of the human soul." If we eliminate 
the cases where a vision appears and speaks, the definite 
power of clairaudience is developed in but a few 
instances. The voice which calls without causing the 
physical atmosphere to vibrate, and yet is perfectly dis- 
tinct and audible, is a striking example of what may 
be accomplished by steady development of the subjec- 
tive powers. 

While there are a number of spiritualistic mediums 
who claim the powers of clairaudience at the present 
day, it may be stated that the faculty is now less com- 
mon than it was in ancient times. Classic literature 
is full of references to voices, and every student of the 
Bible will recall many instances of the spoken word. 

It is clear that the same laws of suggestion apply 



142 THE DUAL MIND 

to this force which apply to other phenomena, and 
clairaudience may be explained in a general way by 
the principles which govern telepathy. At least a par- 
tial suspension of the objectivity seems to be necessary, 
and it is not unlikely that in most cases the voice is a 
projected thought form so distinct and vivid that it 
arouses the sense of hearing to activity, and gives the 
impression of audibility when it is not in .fact audible in 
the ordinary physical sense. 

This is proven by the fact that in many instances 
the voice is heard only by one person, though there may 
be others in his company at the moment. Even in cases 
where the others hear the voice it is probable that they 
may take the suggestion from the first hearer's vivid 
impression. 

Often the voices are heard in the trance-like condi- 
tion which comes with the first sleep, or the moment 
of waking when our consciousness is confused. The 
man who was awakened by hearing the voice of his wife, 
in tones of terror and entreaty, crying, ^'John, John," 
knew that she was in trouble or danger. He had 
received a telepathic projection which had come to him 
as a sound. At another time, under slightly different 
circumstances, he might have seen a vision. In the 
above case, it was learned that the house had been 
invaded by burglars, and that the terrified woman had 
actually called aloud for her husband in the very words 
he heard more than a hundred miles away. 

Her subjective mind was in the ascendancy at the 
moment — she was in a perfect hysteria of fright — and 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 143 

the words were conveyed to him with such distinctness 
and power that he awoke hearing them. 



CRYSTAL GAZING 

While crystal gazing has had a revival in popularity, 
it really is one of the oldest forms of divination. The 
savages in many lands discovered that by gazing with 
rapt attention into a piece of crystal, or, perhaps a limpid 
pool of water, or at the glossy, mirror-like surface of a 
piece of metal, that they could see visions. Some of 
these visions were so colored by their own desires and 
longings that they seemed to be prophetic, and were 
largely accepted as such by the gazers. They found 
that while most people could see the visions, some sensi- 
tive persons were able to see them more easily and 
clearly than others, and these came to be esteemd as 
seers. They also found that certain crystals reflected 
the light in such a way as to create a greater degree 
of hypnosis — that is, to render the hallucinations more 
complicated and striking, and these crystals became 
famous and correspondingly valuable. 

It must be understood that the visions in the crystal 
are the creations or the reflections of the subjective 
mind. They may be mere fantasies, without any value 
whatever, and then again they may be so far telepathic 
as to have real use. In other words, the message told by 
the crystal may be either true or false. 

The crystal is one of the best known and simplest 
aids to the creation of that partial hypnosis which is so 



144 THE DUAL MIND 

favorable to the working of the subjective mind. If 
you gaze steadfastly into a crystal, a sort of fascination 
comes over you. You are likely to forget external 
things, and presently objects and scenes begin to appear. 
As your concentration deepens, the visions become 
clearer and more coherent. You may see distant scenes 
with which you are familiar. Well known and beloved 
faces may appear before you. Tragedies, comedies, 
romances — with actors whom you may or may not 
know and with more or less familiar stage settings, — ■ 
flit before your eyes in one continuous and absorbing 
panorama. 

The partial or total suspension of the objective senses 
is a necessary condition, and in this, crystal gazing 
resembles all other forms of hypnosis. The more com- 
pletely the objective mind is held in abeyance, the more 
various and vivid are the apparitions which appear in 
the crystal. 

The best material for the use of the crystal gazer is, of 
course, a ball of rock crystal. It may be only a tiny ball, 
or it may be as large as a teacup. The shape is a matter 
of indifference, though usually the best results are 
obtained from an oval or spherical crystal. Rock crystal, 
however, or at least that variety suitable for the crystal 
gazer, is both rare and expensive, and glass balls or 
other substances may be substituted with apparently 
equally good results. It is probable that the best results 
are obtained from the white transparent balls, though 
the color seems to be largely a matter of indifference. 
Some crystals are blue, yellow, green, or opalescent. 
Some of the brighter colored crystals tire the eye, while 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 145 

the amethyst crystals are said to offer less strain to the 
optic nerves. If the eyes begin to tire, or if the atten- 
tion is diverted, the success of the experiment is 
lessened. 

If the amateur desires to make experiments for him- 
self, he may obtain a crystal or the best substitute that 
is convenient. Good results have been secured from a 
mirror — either made in the ordinary v^ay or black like 
the noted mirrors of Bahatta. The mirror should not 
reflect too much light, and is better if given some uni- 
form neutral tint like blue or gray. 

The visions seen in the crystal give one the effect 
not of being mental images, but of being actual external 
scenes. These, however, seldom form in any real sense 
a part of the outside world. They may neither be called, 
strictly, hallucinations or illusions. 

Crystal visions which are seen in perfectly dark 
objects are hallucinations of the same nature as may be 
seen when the eyes are closed. 

Mr. Lang quotes a curious experiment which was 
made by one of his friends who covered his head with a 
perfectly dark funnel. There was no illumination, act- 
ually, but he soon found the funnel filled with light, and 
then fancy pictures followed. Afterward the experi- 
menter was certain of having seen the pictures, but he 
could not recall them. They were more vague even 
than the most indefinite dream. 

Those who wish to try the experiment of crystal gaz- 
ing should practice whenever convenient, and by the aid 
of auto suggestion cultivate the power of entering into 
a semi-hypnotic state. There is no rule which may be 



146 THE DUAL MIND 

given to cover any particular case. The picture may 
appear in a kind of mist, gradually taking definite form 
and color, or it may come in little specks of light which 
grow larger and coalesce as you gaze at them steadily. 

When once the pictures begin to appear, however, 
they seem to be completely detached from their origin. 
If at this time the experimenter can become perfectly 
passive and hold his objective senses in abeyance the 
results may become wonderful. 

There is much difference between individuals as to 
the results obtained, but everybody has the power to 
see visions to some extent, and the power grows by prac- 
tice, as it does in all other branches of psychic experi- 
ments. And in this, as in other things, the principle of 
suggestion may be employed to develop subjective 
activity. Often, indeed, a suggestion is so potent that 
an experienced operator causes the person gazing at the 
crystal to see any vision that may be suggested to him. 
In this case, as easily may be seen, the practice may be 
susceptible of fraud and imposture. 

The success of the experiment depends upon physi- 
cal and mental conditions at the time, and even those 
who have the faculty at its highest, sometimes find 
themselves unable to produce visions of any interest 

The crystal should be so placed that it is sheltered 
from reflection, offering no high points of light. It 
usually reposes on a cushion of black velvet or is 
wrapped in some other kind of black cloth. It may, too, 
be sheltered in the hollow of the hand. It should be 
placed ten or fifteen inches from the eye^ — whatever 
your range of vision normally may be — so that there 



SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA 147 

is no strain upon the optic nerves. You should try to 
fasten your gaze upon the heart of the crystal, not 
permitting yourself to see its surface at all if you can 
so arrange the light and so fix your attention as to 
accomplish it. 

The most comfortable attitude should be adopted, 
either sitting or reclining, so that there will be nothing 
in a physical way to cause you distress. The simplest 
way, at the beginning, perhaps, is to select some object 
which is not reflected in the crystal and gaze at it for 
a moment. Then close your eyes and try to see its 
image. Then gaze at the crystal and make an effort to 
visualize it in the heart of the ball. 

You may not have any natural aptitude, and may be 
unable to fix your gaze and keep your mind from 
wandering. But after six or eight efforts you probably 
will be able to visualize the object at which you have 
been gazing in the crystal. After you have succeeded 
in doing this it is a good plan to try closing your eyes 
for a moment until you can call up a mental picture of 
some familiar scene, and then transfer this to the crystal. 
Try some single figure or a simple bit of action at first, 
and as you learn to transfer the scene to the crystal you 
will become more proficient. Complex and elaborate 
scenes are produced, and oftimes one will witness inci- 
dents that are taking place in a foreign land with mar- 
velous clearness and accuracy. 



CHAPTER XIII 

SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTISM 

THERE are many thousands of honest spiritualists 
in the world. They are able to explain all the phe- 
nomena obtained by their mediums in a manner that is 
highly satisfactory, to themselves at least. Some of 
the mediums have been convicted of fraud by investigat- 
ing scientists who have therefore turned aside with the 
belief that the manifestations at all the seances are 
fraudulent. 

The honest investigator is not inclined to accept the 
conclusions of either the adherents or the critics of 
spiritualism as final. He cannot conclude because a 
few mediums have been "fakers" that all spiritualism 
is built upon a basis of fraud; nor can he declare that 
because some of the demonstrations are difficult to 
reconcile with the conclusions of accepted natural law, 
that they are therefore supernatural. 

Even many of the hardest headed of modern scien- 
tists have acknowledged that there is ''something" in 
spiritualistic phenomena that they are not prepared to 
explain. 

We must remember that there are many natural laws 
which are not yet understood, and it is more logical to 
attribute the unexplained phenomena of spiritualism to 
these unknown laws than it is to attribute them to the 
ghostly hands of our friends who have passed over the 

148 



SPIRITISM AMD HYPNOTISM 149 

borderland into the world beyond. Even at present 
many of the demonstrations which are classed by the 
unthinking as either fraudulent or supernatural may be 
satisfactorily accounted for by the principles of hyp- 
notism, the laws of suggestion, and the operations of 
the subjective mind. 

One of the most intelligent of modern investigators, 
Dr. Joseph Lapponi, who was chief physician to Pope 
Leo, and professor of practical anthropology at the 
academy of Rome, in his exhaustive book on "Hyp- 
notism and Spiritism," gives the details of a typical 
seance held under favorable conditions. The seance 
begins with table turning, which takes place in the fol- 
lowing manner : "The two thumbs of each person are 
to be touching each other, and each little finger is to be 
in communication with the little fingers of the persons 
on either side. The medium himself completes the 
'chain' with his two hands. The hands of all together 
rest on the edge of the table. 

"A silence of a few minutes takes place, whilst all 
watch expectantly. Then the table creaks, moves from 
one or the other side; sometimes it rises from the 
ground, and finally falls back heavily. 

"The medium announces that the spirits are present ; 
the hands are raised from the table, the chain is broken; 
the spirits have responded to the invitation and can 
work by themselves. If the chain is not broken the 
operatives must all remain at the table and be under the 
dominion of the spirits for as long as and in the way 
that pleases the latter, as if they made but one body 
with the table itself. 



150 THE DUAL MIND 

"Let us suppose that the chain is broken. From 
various points of the table put at the disposition of the 
spirits, will be heard noises of violent, frequent and 
repeated hollow raps. Then the table itself, not being 
touched by any one present, moves backwards and for- 
wards, rises of itself, and turns, sometimes slowly, some- 
times with dizzy rapidity, on its axis, first to the right 
for a few minutes, and then to the left. It is transported 
from one place to another in the room and swings first 
on one and then on another of its legs. Then suddenly, 
without any outside help, it returns to its place and 
stops as if fatigued with so much arduous labor. 

"Then the other objects in the room begin to move 
about. The stools skip by themselves, .... the 
chairs dance and jump about, changing places, bending 
first one way then another, or standing on one leg 
obliquely but without falling, against all laws of equi- 
librium. The china, .... the tables and other fur- 
niture of the room begin a singular dance; they move 
about and jolt against one another and mix themselves 
up in an extraordinary muddle without breaking or 
being damaged, and if the pieces of furniture on which 
these things are placed incline much to one side, or if 
they turn somersaults in the air, they do not budge, but 
remain as if they had been nailed. 

"The heaviest furniture in the room — cupboards and 
chests — creep, move about, change positions, rise in 
the air, and sometimes succeed in touching the ceiling 
and remaining attached to it for some fifteen minutes." 

These weird and uncanny demonstrations so graphi- 
cally described by Dr. Lapponi have been witnessed by 



SPIRITISM AMD HYPNOTISM 151 

other investigators under circumstances which seemed 
to preclude the possibilities of fraud. They are seen 
at all seances in some form and are no longer dismissed 
as fraudulent or derided as hallucinations. The undeni- 
able frauds which have been discovered may be attri- 
buted to the natural desire of the medium to increase 
the dramatic effect of his seance, or to produce that 
effect under circumstances which would be otherwise 
unfavorable. But it is no longer possible to declare 
the whole range of spiritualistic phenomena fraudulent. 

The table turning itself may be explained in large 
part by hypnosis. Owing to the strained surroundings, 
the long wait, the eagerness to produce results it 
would be entirely natural for some one of those who 
create the ''chain" to become hypnotised, perhaps 
momentarily and unconsciously. It is well known 
that not only the senses, but the physical powers 
are heightened under hypnosis, and the person at the 
table in his desire to cause the table to turn and gyrate 
might cause it to do so to a certain extent by his own 
unconscious movements. 

The medium himself is almost sure to be under the 
spell of auto suggestion. He has hypnotised himself 
at the very beginning of the seance. The movement 
once started communicates itself to the others. The 
nervous excitement spreads, and all the conditions are 
favorable for hysteria, hallucinations, telepathic projec- 
tions, phantasms, and involuntary frauds. The audience 
itself reaches a point where it is willing to co-operate 
with the medium in creating effects that feed its own 
sensationalism-. 



152 THE DUAL MIND 

As a hypnotised man believes he is an animal or is 
convinced of any reality at the suggestion of his 
control, so it is not impossible at a seance for the whole 
assembly to be under the hypnotic control of the 
medium, all the more complete if he himself is in an 
unconscious semi-trance, with his objective mind par- 
tially or completely suppressed. 

That was the gist of the conclusion reached by the 
Psychical Society of St. Petersburg University ap- 
pointed to examine the question of spiritistic phenom- 
ena. The commission excluded the realty of many of 
the demonstrations and explained the others by halluci- 
nations, conjuring and involuntary or unconscious 
fraud due to suggestion and auto suggestion. 

Dr. Lapponi, however, does not accept the conclu- 
sions of the St. Petersburg commission, and he agrees 
with Sir William Crookes and Lombroso that while 
hypnotic suggestion might partially explain the phe- 
nomena produced at seances, it is impossible to attri- 
bute all the demonstrations to any such source. 

The further phenomena described by Dr. Lapponi 
at the typical seance above referred to are so graphic 
that we will quote his own words once more. 

^'Whilst the marvels above related are taking place," 
continues Dr. Lapponi, ''some of the objects in the room 
have lost a great part of their weight, so that, although 
large and covered with other objects a child can carry 
them from one place to another as if they were feathers. 
Others, on the contrary, although very small, become 
extraordinarily heavy so that, although in normal condi- 
tions a child could easily manage them, now it takes two 



SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTISM 153 

or three men to lift them a few centimeters above the 
ground. This change of weight is but temporary, and 
only lasts as long as it pleases the mysterious beings 
that have produced it. 

'To make the spectacle more varied, music will 
sometimes be heard. If there is a musical instrument 
in the room, this will play without being touched by 
any one. If the instrument be a pianoforte or a har- 
monium, at the most one may see the keys moving, but 
without seeing the force that moves them. If there 
is no instrument in the room, in the house or street 
even, that does not hinder the music from being heard. 

"Then to the great astonishment of those present, 
the person of the medium appears extraordinarily gi- 
gantic, only to become exceedingly small, and all this 
with regard to proportion. The change of stature per- 
sists until all present have had time to verify it by touch 
and measurement. After sundry alternatings between 
the dimensions of a dwarf and those of a giant, the 
medium returns to his ordinary size, and, sitting on a 
chair or table, is slowly raised in the air until his head 
nearly touches the ceiling. He remains in this position 
for some eight or ten minutes. This is done in the 
sight of all present. The deed is repeated more than 
once, with slight variations as to detail. 

"Whilst the audience admire wonderingly all that 
is going on, suddenly the lights which had gone out 
are rekindled by themselves, and a hot or cold wind is 
felt by all on some part of the body. Then invisible 
hands tear, move, seize petulantly the clothes of the 
various individuals; from one a watch, from another a 



154 THE DUAL MIND 

handkerchief, and from a third a memorandum book is 
taken. And these objects may be found in the laps or 
the pockets of other spectators far away from those 
from whom they were stolen. Other invisible hands at 
the same time shake hands, touch the arm, the shoulder, 
the thigh, the knee of one or other persent. One is 
caressed, another has his beard pulled or his mustache, 
or hair; one has his hat thrown on the ground, another 
has his stolen. 

''Among the spectators there will be some who will 
ask the medium to put an end to so much disturbance, 
and to seek rather to enter into conversation with the 
spirits. The medium is too courteous not to accede 
to the wishes of his clients. At his request the up- 
heaval ceases, and a little table, chosen by the audience, 
will be the instrument of communication between the 
assembly of the living and the troop of spirits who 
have come to the meeting." 

Upon witnessing these wonders, it is the natural 
inclination of the observer to declare that they are 
inexplicable. But are they any more wonderful than 
electricity. X-rays, wireless telegraphy, or the phono- 
graph? Everything the savage does not understand 
he attributes to magic. The American Indian, when he 
first saw and heard a piano thought that singing-birds 
were imprisonedMn the case of the instrument. 

We are frank to admit that the phenomena described 
by Dr. Lapponi and kindred demonstrations vouched 
for by other investigators are not to be easily explained. 
But it seems to us more logical to suppose that they are 
caused by physical forces not yet known but beginning 



SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTISM 155 

to be dimly realized by the more advanced scientists 
than to believe that they are the work of the spirits of 
the dead. 

It must be remembered that the Hindu fakirs do 
tricks just as marvelous and without making any claim 
that their magic is the work of spirits. 

Jaccolliott, in his ''Spiritisme dans le Monde," relates 
what he has seen done in full daylight by a fakir whom 
he met by chance near Benares : 

"I meant to take him by surprise," says the French 
investigator, ''and on his arrival told him it was my 
desire to see the miracle of the immediate germination 
and the speedy growth of the plant. 

" 1 am at your service,' he replied to me in all sim- 
plicity. I was somewhat disconcerted, but replied 
quickly, 'Will you let me select the earth, the vase and 
the seed that you are going to make germinate under 
my eyes?' 

" The vase and the seed, yes; but the earth must 
be taken from an ant's hill and finely pounded.' 

"I told my domestic to provide the earth indicated, 
and to prepare it as the fakir had said; also to bring me 
a flower vase with a handful of different kinds of seed. 
In less than a quarter of an hour my domestic returned, 
bringing all the objects demanded. I took them from 
his hand and then sent him away, not wishing to let 
him hold any intercourse with the fakir. Taking the 
earth from my hand and placing it in a vase, the fakir 
sprinkled it slowly with a little water reciting I know 
not what prayers. Then he begged me to give him the 
seed I had chosen and some yards of any kind of stuff. 



iS6 THE DUAL MIND 

I casually took a poppy seed and asked permission 
to mark it. Receiving a reply in the affirmative, I 
made a tiny little notch in the outer covering of the 
seed and gave it to him, with some yards of white 
muslin. 

'' 'Now I will sleep with the sleep of the spirits,' 
said the fakir to me, 'swear not to touch my person or 
the vase I have prepared.' 

"I promised what he asked me. He then planted the 
seed in the earth which the water had reduced to the 
state of mud; then directing his stick to the edge of the 
vase, he covered it up entirely in the muslin I had given 
him. Then he leant his body forward, spread his two 
arms horizontally over the preparation and gradually 
passed into a complete state of catalepsy. He stayed 
thus for two hours without the slightest movement or 
muscular tremor to indicate the presence of life. Quite 
naked, and with a body shining and tanned by the sun, 
and eyes open and fixed, the fakir resembled a bronze 
statue in a pose of mystic invocation, I did not lose 
sight of him for one instant. After two long hours of 
waiting, when the sun touched the horizon, the fakir 
gave a gentle sigh and returned to life. He beckoned 
to me to go nearer, and, unwrapping the muslin which 
covered the vase, showed me a fresh and green young 
poppy plant, about two centimeters high. Guessing my 
doubts, the fakir shook the earth, which had become 
quite dry again, off the tender plant, and on one of the 
two husks of the seed, which still adhered to the root, 
showed me the notch which I had made two hours 
before. No substitution had been possible, because he 



SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTISM 157 

was absolutely naked, because he could not tell that I 
had chosen a poppy seed, and because I had never once 
let him go out of my sight. After enjoying the sight of 
my amazement for some moments, the fakir said, with 
an air of badly dissembled pride : 

" 'If I continued the evocation, in eight days the 
poppy would flower and in a fortnight b€ar fruit.' " 

This feat of the fakir has been proved by other 
travelers, and there would seem to be no fair reason to 
doubt that the Hindu wonder workers can equal or 
excel any demonstration of magic accredited to the 
spiritualists of Europe or America. Indeed, Dr. Lap- 
poni finds that there is no essential difference between 
magic, necromancy, and spiritism, and whether the mir- 
acles are performed by the assistance of the dead, as 
the spiritualists believe, or by occult powers of the 
Orient, they spring from the same source. 

It is known that the Hindus are the greatest hyp- 
notists in the world. An adept has been known to place 
himself in a cataleptic condition by means of auto sug- 
gestion and then permit himself to be buried for a num- 
ber of weeks. When he is dug out of his grave at the 
end of the appointed time he resumes the normal state, 
seemingly no worse for his brief residence in the tomb. 

We are now going to suggest an explanation of 
these wonders that is too speculative to be accepted as a 
scientific conclusion. It is not an established law or 
principle, and we offer it more as a curious theory than 
anything else. 

Some years ago there was a young man in Kansas 
City, Missouri, who possessed the curious hypnotic or 



158 . THE DUAL MIND 

magnetic power of spreading his hands over a pack of 
cards and causing any particular card asked for to creep 
out of the deck and come to him without being touched 
by his hands or any other visible material agency. He 
did not himself know how he did it, but believed that he 
hypnotised the card and caused it to obey his command. 

Now, if it can be proved to be possible to extend 
hypnotic influence and suggestion to what we call inani- 
mate objects, the miracle of table turning would be ac- 
counted for at once. The dancing furniture, the piano 
played without hands, the quick growing poppy of the 
Hindu fakir, all would be explained by the theory that 
the subconscious mind, under certain favorable condi- 
tions, could impart its powers to inanimate objects and 
compel them to obey its commands. 

This theory of man's mental control over material 
objects might be considered logical under the acceptance 
of either one of two different philosophical conclusions. 

If the theories of the metaphysical school of Kant 
and Schopenhauer be tenable — if all matter is objective 
and illusory and conscious life is the only reality, then 
it would follow as a matter of course that the creative 
subjectivity could play what tricks it would with its own 
illusion. If the chair existed only as the subjective 
mind created its image and placed it where it stood, then 
why would it Hot be possible for the creative mind of 
man to cause the chair to stand on one leg, defying 
the laws of gravitation and inertia ? 

There is another point of view from which it would 
be logical to give the mind of man power over inani- 
mate matter. 



SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTLSM 159 

If we accept the conclusions of those who believe in 
the immanence and universality of the life principle in 
all matter — mineral, vegetable and animal alike — then 
any control which the dominant, eager mind of the man 
had over the sluggish consciousness of the material 
object would be natural and logical. This speculation, 
followed up, carries us too far from the purpose of our 
work, and yet it is so intimately connected with the 
higher psychic phenomena that it is worth consideration. 

Upon this hypothesis, it would not be supernatural 
for the man to be able to influence the inanimate objects 
which he finds about him. 

To leave speculation aside, however, let us see what 
is the scientific conclusion of the world, so far as a con- 
clusion has been reached, in reference to spiritualistic 
phenomena. 

Prof. Crookes, while not denying the reality of the 
phenomena, suggests that they occur not against nature's 
laws, but against our present knowledge of those laws. 
There may be occult forces of nature, for instance, 
which we cannot perceive with our senses, but which 
operate under certain supernormal conditions when we 
see the effect of their manifestations. 

Dr. Lapponi frankly throws up his hands and cries, 
in effect, that the matter is not to be explained and the 
inference is that he really believes in the supernatural 
character of the manifestations. 

He concludes that ''spiritism in its genuine form is 
made up of physical and psycho-biological phenomena 
of quite a special nature, without parallel of any kind in 
the ordinary conditions of cosmic economy. In close 



i6o THE DUAL MIND 

touch and perhaps identical with it is telepathy." After- 
ward he adds that "spiritism is the manifestation of a 
preternatural order of activity. Its phenomena can 
only be partially explained by illusions, hallucinations, 
treachery, or fraud, or by the particular physico-patho- 
logical conditions of the mediums and their assistants. 
In many cases no physical laws can give a likely or 
probable explanation. Others again contradict the best 
known laws of nature. Spiritism of to-day is identical 
with magic and the necromancy of the Greeks, of the 
Romans, and of the Middle Ages." 

It has been noted that spiritualistic mediums, and 
others who are firm believers in the phenomena of the 
cult, are especially good subjects for the hypnotist. 
They fall under the influence easily and are easily con- 
trolled by suggestion. This, however, would not 
necessarily mean that spiritism and hypnotism are 
allied, but that the spiritualist is by nature as well as 
by training a sensitive person, easily thrown into an 
abnormal condition. The student is not advised to 
permit his investigations to carry him too far into the 
realm of spiritistic phenomena unless he is sure that 
he can keep firmly anchored in his own mind the belief 
that the demonstrations he witnesses are not super- 
natural, but are the workings of a natural law which 
is not yet understood. 

It is admitted by most investigators that the phe- 
nomena produced by mediums is of little or no practical 
value. The spirits they call up from the unknown 
may be mischievous, but they are seldom wise. No 
communication alleged to be from the beyond has added 



SPIRITISM AND HYPNOTISM i6i 

anything to the knowledge of the world regarding the 
hereafter. No vexed question of the problem of life 
and death has been settled. If the alleged spirits have 
obtained any information that it would be good for 
humanity to know, they have not imparted it through 
their mediums or otherwise. 



CHAPTER XIV 

SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 

IT might safely be made an axiom that any idea or 
beHef which stands the test of ages contains some- 
where the element of truth. No matter how false it 
may appear at certain times, no matter how false it may 
be proved in part, if it survive it must possess some grain 
of the eternal, which is truth. So it is with alchemy, 
that ancient science which absorbed the energies of 
so many wise and able men for centuries then lived 
through further centuries of scorn and incredulity and 
is to-day, under the simpler title of the transmutation 
of metals, receiving the serious attention of the savants. 
It has, in fact, been proved to be at least partly true. 

So it is with suggestive therapeutics which under 
one name or another has existed as long as civilization. 
The theory has been flouted and jeered at, has been 
denounced by church and state but has still survived, 
and there are few, if any, scientific men of repute living 
to-day who will not admit that mental healing is a 
real and vital force. 

Where cures are affected through suggestive ther- 
apeutics they are brought about simply through the 
action of the patient's mind over his body. This being 
so it is natural to find that the science has been most 
valuable in the case of purely nervous diseases. It has 
proved especially efficacious in the case of insomnia 

162 



SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 163 

and its action is very easy to understand. The patient 
has simply obtained the power of producing sleep at 
will. In other words he compels his disorder to give 
way before the strength of his mind. 

The advantages of such treatment are obvious. 
Where recourse is had to ordinary medical science 
drugs are introduced into the body which may relieve 
the pain and remove the symptoms of the disease 
that the patient suffers from, but must locically 
injure the system by their reaction. Where narcotics 
are employed in cases of insomnia it means simply 
that the patient has added a drug habit to his 
original disease and has obtained immediate relief at 
the expense of increased future suffering. 

Medical men have always been in difficulties over 
the treatment of nervous diseases. As a matter of fact 
until they consented to recognize mental therapeutics 
they were in most cases powerless. The causes of 
nervous disorders are usually obscure and incapable of 
treatment by drugs. They yield to mental treatment 
solely because they are largely brought about from 
mental causes. 

The fundamental law on which the science of mental 
therapeutics is based may be stated thus : All sensa- 
tions, functions, and conditions of the body are abso- 
lutely controlled by the subjective mind. We know 
positively that through the influence of the subjective 
mind, normal conditions can be made abnormal, and 
it is surely reasonable to expect then that the reverse 
would be true, i.e. that abnormal conditions could be 
brought back to normal through the same agency. 







i64 THE DUAL MIND 

However the proof of what has actually been ac- 
complished by suggestive therapeutics is too ample and 
authenticated for it to be necessary to argue the 
premises. 

Simple hypnotic methods are usually adopted by 
those who adopt mental therapeutics as a means of 
healing. The process is excellently described by Pro- 
fessor Hudson in his book entitled: 'The Law of 
Psychic Phenomena." 

*'I begin by saying to the patient that I believe 
benefit is to be derived from the use of suggestive 
therapeutics, and that it is possible to relieve him, or 
cure him, through hypnotism; that there is nothing 
either hurtful or strange about it ; that it is an ordinary 
sleep, or torpor, which can be induced in every one, and 
that this quiet, beneficial condition restores equilibrium 
of the nervous system. . . . 

'Tn some it required a course of training before 
they could do their part. The sleep is brought on not 
by the operator but by the patient. The operator 
merely directs. It is not the hypnotic sleep that is the 
remedial agency. The sleep may be induced for the 
purpose of giving rest to the body and mind, thus 
making it the agency itself. But for treatment of 
diseases and disorders where suggestion is employed 
the sleep merely, becomes a favorable condition for sug- 
gesting to the patient such things as are desired." 

Where a patient suffers from local pains the usual 
treatment is for the operator to pass his hands gently 
over the affected parts, or simply exercise a mild 
pressure. It is curious to note that if a third person 



SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 165 

touch the patient, who is in a mesmeric state, the 
contact will either not be noticed at all, or else it will 
throw the subject into a state of irritation bordering 
on paroxysm. 

While much has been done in mental therapeutics 
through pure hypnotism, the best results have been 
obtained where mesmeric influence is employed. Under 
mesmeric conditions the oral suggestion of the hyp- 
notist is supplanted by telepathic suggestion which is 
equally as potent, and in addition there is a positive 
dynamic force exerted by the mesmerist upon the 
patient. 

There is even a more important consideration to 
be taken account of where mesmeric conditions prevail. 
The mesmerist is himself to some degree in a subcon- 
scious condition. He is therefore able to diagnose the 
patient's condition intuitively. Such instinctive or 
subconscious diagnosis is much more likely to be 
correct than the objective methods which are employed 
by the hypnotist. 

To sum up, there are two powerful reasons for the 
superiority of mesmeric methods in therapeutics over 
those of pure hypnotism. Firstly, it combines oral 
suggestion and mental suggestion. Secondly, it 
engages that mysterious power, partly physical and 
partly mental, which we term animal magnetism. 

We are not sufficiently advanced in knowledge to 
know what mesmerism really is, or what is the nature 
of the mystic force which one human being is able to 
exercise over another. All that we know is that 
the experiences of numerous persons conclusively 



i66 THE DUAL MIND 

prove that there exists a certain power which can be 
directed by the conscious mind of man, and under 
certain restrictions, can be used to beneficial ends. 
Collated proofs demonstrate that mesmeric passes cause 
a sensation on the part of the subject somewhat 
similar to that produced by a mild shock of electricity. 
In some cases this effect is produced even when the 
passes are made by an operator standing several 
hundred feet away from the subject. The force of 
the effluence seems to be controlled by the temperament 
and personality of the operator, but the laws that govern 
this phase of the subject are beyond the scope of our 
present knowledge. 

Professor Hudson has laid down the law in ther- 
apeutics that: "When suggestion is actively and in- 
telligently employed it is always effective." 

This law must of course depend for its interpreta- 
tion on the meaning given to the words "actively and 
intelligently." It may be, however, stated as axiomatic, 
that an individual responds to treatment in proportion 
to his power of receiving suggestions, and, further, that 
his power of receiving suggestions is proportional to 
the power and skill of the operator. 

Some persons respond readily to suggestive treat- 
ment while others require a special course of treatment. 
After a patienb has been hypnotised a few times he 
can easily be brought to the point where he will grasp 
readily and actively the suggestions of the operator, 
and after he has reached that stage he will accept 
therapeutic suggestions from his physician at any 
future time. 



SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 167 

It must not be supposed that a man suffering from 
a painful disease will be cured on his first suggestive 
treatment. Sometimes the pain will gradually diminish 
until it finally disappears after the first hypnotization, 
but in difficult cases a series of seances is necessary. 
The physical cause of the disease, and the patient's 
susceptibility to suggestion must always be taken into 
account. 

The physician, or operator, who is most successful 
in suggestive therapeutics is the one who realizes most 
thoroughly the differences in the individuality and 
suggestibility of his patients. The same methods will 
not be sufficient in all cases. While with some indi- 
viduals a single word is enough to convey a sugges- 
tion, others must be reasoned with, and a third class 
will require the suggestion to be gently insinuated. 
In all cases it must be borne in mind that the language 
used by the operator should be as plain and direct as 
possible. 

It is of course obvious that the quicker an idea 
can be established in a patient's mind, the quicker and 
more pronounced will be the result. For this reason 
it is well that the hypnosis should be as deep as 
possible. 

However the lighter stages are also useful as they 
frequently develop into the deeper forms, and often 
give excellent results in such lighter ailments as head- 
ache, toothache, etc. In the suggestive therapeutic 
schools of Paris and Berlin the attempt is always made 
to put the patient into the somnambulistic sleep. In 
the first seance this is not always possible, but some 



i68 THE DUAL MIND 

very extraordinary results have been obtained where 
the treatment never passed the lighter stages. 

Somnambulism Is of course nothing but a sugges- 
tion itself, but it is when this condition is produced 
that the highest efficiency of suggestive treatment is 
reached. Cures have been effected while the patient 
was in the somnambulistic state which have seemed 
almost miraculous, and there are authenticated instances 
where patients suffering from paralysis, who have 
been given up by ordinary doctors as hopeless, have 
been restored to health by this means. 

One of the most valuable uses to which suggestive 
therapeutics have been put is in cases of drink and 
other vicious habits. An alcoholic patient is placed 
under hypnotic influence, and the operator tells him 
that when he awakes he will no longer desire liquor. 
He is told that even the smell of alcholic beverages 
will be distasteful to him. After the patient has been 
aroused from somnolence he will find that he remem- 
bers nothing of what occurred when he was under the 
control of the hypnotist, but he also finds that his 
favorite beverages have become disagreeable to him. 

Many persons who are addicted to drink, or drugs, 
are chained to their vices by the thought that they 
would be unable to live without them. They will 
admit readily the injury they are doing themselves, but 
they argue that their bodies have become habituated 
to the habit and could not stand the deprivation. 
Under suggestive treatment they are told that this idea 
is false, that they can abandon their drugs without 
anything but beneficial results, and that any idea that 



SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 169 

they really require such stimulants is a mere chimera. 
Where vicious habits have become inveterate in a man 
the treatment must frequently be prolonged for some 
time, but it rarely fails to be effective, and practically 
never where the operator thoroughly understands his 
science and practices it intelligently. 

It is not at all rare to find persons submitting to 
suggestive treatment as a last resort although they 
have little faith in its efficacy, and are not a little 
dubious as to possible injurious effects from a science 
of which they know nothing. It is important for the 
operator to first ascertain the attitude of the patient 
towards the whole question. If he finds him in the 
state of mind suggested, his first care should be to 
disabuse him from error. As soon or even before the 
patient is influenced he should be informed that there 
is nothing harmful or even mysterious in suggestive 
therapeutics, that nothing but benefit need be expected 
from the treatment, and that the condition in no way 
differs from that of ordinary sleep. 

Before going further it may be well to state the 
principal diseases and abnormalities which have yielded 
to suggestive therapeutics according to authenticated 
records of cases treated in the leading schools by 
leading professors of the science : 

Functional disorders of the organs of hearing, sight, 
and speech; insomnia and general nervous debility; 
paralysis; toothache, headache, and chronic earache; 
dipsomania and all forms of drug manias ; kleptomania 
and sexual perversion; habitual falsehood and dis- 
obedience in children ; lack of mental balance and moral 



lyo THE DUAL MIND 

anaesthesia; rheumatism; lumbago; dyspepsia, and 
many ailments of similar nature. 

On the high authority of Professor E. H. Currier, 
principal of the New York Institute for the instruction 
of the deaf and dumb, the statement is made that 
congenital deafness can be cured by hypnotism. Pro- 
fessor Currier has declared that sufficient cases where 
cures were effected have come under his personal 
knowledge to confirm his belief in the immense value 
of hypnotism in the treatment of this disease. 

Probably no disease is responsible for more suffer- 
ing, and even crime in the modern civilized world, than 
that of dyspepsia. This great evil is the primal cause 
in innumerable cases of the contraction of the liquor 
and drug habits. Its effects in producing domestic 
unhappiness which so frequently culminates in crime 
are known to be vast although no statistics can 
be available on the subject. Moreover, under modern 
conditions of living, the dyspeptic rarely obtains any 
permanent relief from drugs and frequently only aggra- 
vates his disease. A cure for this terrible shadow on 
civilization is as great a blessing as any that medical 
science, in any of its branches, can offer. 

Dyspepsia is to a large extent a nervous disease 
and finds the larger number of its victims among those 
who have sensitive and highly organized temperaments. 
It is therefore peculiarly susceptible to treatment by 
suggestion. Psycho-therapeutics can be used to great 
benefit in all cases of dyspepsia and all those complaints 
which are immediately connected with indigestion. 
Especially is this so in the case of insomnia, which is 



SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 171 

extremely difficult to treat in any other way. Dis- 
tinguished physicians, such as Dr. van Reuterghem, 
and Dr. van Eeden, have not hesitated to give it as their 
opinion that the best cure known for insomnia was 
hypnotism. Incidentally they have unqualifiedly con- 
demned the use of anything in the nature of a soporific, 
as such drugs merely strengthen the belief of the patient 
that he cannot go to sleep without his accustomed dose, 
and eventually result in the formation of a drug habit. 

Where dyspeptics suffer from loss of appetite, Pro- 
fessor Hudson has this remarkable statement to make 
in reference to the results of hypnotic treatment: 

'Tt has often happened that patients to whom it 
was suggested that they should have a better appetite 
have not been able to wait until they reached their 
homes but have gone to a hotel to satisfy their hunger." 

In this connection there is hardly a man who cannot 
recall in his own experience the influence of sugges- 
tion. Frequently when one has no thought of eating, a 
friend will suggest a lunch or a dinner, and the 
suggestion will immediately act as a potent incentive 
to appetite. It is also a frequent experience for a man 
to sit down to the table without feeling particularly 
hungry and suddenly find his taste for food growing 
under the influence of a companion's expressed hunger, 
and also the more subtle influence of suggestive 
environment. 

Conditions highly favorable for hypnotic treat- 
ment are found in functional disorders of the organs 
of speech, such as stammering, lisping, etc. It is un- 
doubtedly true that in most cases of these unpleasant 



172 THE DUAL MIND 

defects the cause is found in auto sugestion. The organs 
are perfect but the imagination of the sufferer causes 
him to lose control. It is only reasonable then to 
regard suggestion as the most natural method of effect- 
ing a cure. 

Suggestive therapeutics is not of course a universal 
panacea for all human ills. It would hardly prove 
effective in the case of malignant fevers, such as typhus 
and small-pox, although it may be used to advantage 
to relieve certain symptoms which arise in connection 
with such disorders. However the most valuable field 
for this science is the broad one of functional nervous 
diseases. Its value in this direction is enhanced in view 
of the fact that the methods which have been hitherto 
employed have been without any definite results. 



CHAPTER XV 

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 

SUGGESTIVE therapeutics is a psychic treatment 
and is consequently suited essentially to psychic 
diseases. Nervousness in all its manifestations is un- 
questionably psychic and therefore, to complete the 
syllogism, suggestion is the logical treatment. 

The passions and appetites of man are responsible 
for more of his ills and troubles than any other cause 
under the sun. When these two tremendous powers 
are unbridled there is no limit to the human havoc 
which they can create. Their bridle is the will, and 
they are born of the subconscious mind. If then they 
are loosed from the bondage in which they must be 
strictly held the remedy must reach the subconscious- 
ness. Suggestion is the only power known to man 
which can influence the subconscious mind, and there- 
fore the only remedy for abnormal appetites and their 
attendant ills. 

A great deal of nonsense is talked by irresponsible 
and ignorant people concerning alleged harmful results 
from hypnotic treatment. There is not the shadow 
of ground for such assertions. In all the experience of 
reputable hypnotists and physicions who have used 
hypnotism for medical purposes no case has ever been 
reported where the use of hypnotism has been attended 
with injurious effects which were caused by its use. 

173 



174 THE DUAL MIND 

The power of suggestion may of course be used to 
wrong ends by unscrupulous persons, and under certain 
rare conditions. Where, however, it is employed by 
a competent and reputable physician or hypnotist there 
can be no possibility of any injurious outcome. It 
sometimes happens that a patient who has been cured 
by hypnotic methods suffers from a relapse but this 
can nearly always be traced to adverse suggestion. 

There is still in the world a considerable amount of 
scepticism and ignorant superstition in regard to 
hypnotism. It is not uncommon for a patient who has 
been cured by psycho-therapeutics to find his news 
greeted by his friends with a storm of sneers and scoff- 
ings. The influence which had been exercised so bene- 
ficially by the hypnotist is annulled by the adverse 
suggestions which impregnate the environment of the 
patient and he falls back into the clutches of his illness 
perhaps more deeply than before. It is very important 
that the hypnotist should impress upon his subjects 
the imperative necessity of not allowing themselves to 
be influenced by adverse suggestions. 

A most important branch of mental therapeutics is 
in its relation to surgery. It can produce anaesthesia 
as perfectly as any drug or gas known to medical 
science and with absolutely no danger of an ill effect 
afterwards. The great disadvantage to the use of 
ordinary mechanical anaesthetics is that there is always 
a certain element of danger to the patient and they are 
useless in cases where heart disease exists. Of course 
it is hardly necessary to point out the great value of 
being enabled to perform surgical operations with no 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 175 

pain to the patient. The absence of pain frequently 
turns the balance and renders operations successful 
which would otherwise result fatally. Hundreds of 
cases are on record where the most difficult operations 
have been performed successfully while the patient was 
in a complete condition of anaesthesia produced by 
hypnotic methods. 

An important differentiation between the use of 
hypnotism to produce anaesthesia and other methods 
is that the former practically never causes inflammation. 
A patient, even under the influence of ether, suffers 
constantly from the wound becoming inflamed. This 
irritation is extremely dangerous and is frequently 
sufficient, as an aggravating cause, to cause death. 
When anaesthesia is brought about through hypnotic 
methods this never occurs. 

It must however be remembered that hypnosis can- 
not always take the place of chloroform or ether. It 
often happens that the anxiety in which the patient finds 
himself prior to the operation prevents the concentra- 
tion of mind which is generally essential to success. In 
every case the greatest care must be taken, and it is 
usually necessary to hypnotise the patient several times 
before the required depth of sleep can be reached during 
which it will be safe to operate. 

Hypnotism has been used successfully in cases of 
child-birth, breast amputations, and other exceedingly 
painful and precarious operations, but it is useless to 
pretend that it can be generally used in surgery, or 
can take the place of material anaesthetics. 

Experiments conducted by Bernheim and others 



176 THE DUAL MIND 

prove that actual structural changes can be brought 
about by oral suggestion. Both Bernheim and Moll 
relate details of cases where a postage stamp was 
applied to the back of patients and a blister raised by 
telling them that it was a mustard plaster. Experi- 
ments conducted by others and fully authenticated 
leave no doubt as to the truth of this thesis. It may 
be therefore, laid down that physiological processes can 
be affected under purely hypnotic conditions. 

It may not be out of place to revert here to an 
obstacle which has stood in the way of the advance of 
psychic healing in all ages. That is lack of faith. All 
psychic healers from Christ down have emphasized the 
necessity of faith if any benefit was to be looked for. 
At present, as in the past, it is a common thing to hear 
people say that ''it (psychic healing) is all very well 
for credulous people, but it can never be of any use to 
me for I do not believe in such things." In the present 
state of psychic knowledge this is natural enough, but 
it is entirely based on a misapprehension. That mis- 
apprehension consists in a general belief that the 
desired mental attitude is related to the faith of the 
objective mind. 

The suggestion of one's own objective mind is as 
potent over his subjective mentality as that of another. 
The law therefore follows that whatever the state of 
the subject's objective mind, if he will assume to have 
faith either actively, or passively, his subjective mind 
can be controlled and the desired result will be obtained. 
>" The whole science of physic healing is contained in 
the two words — passivity and suggestion. The co- 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 177 

operation of the objective mind is not essential. If 
the subject allows himself to relapse into a state of 
passivity he is susceptible to the reception of suggestion. 
To some degree at least he becomes hypnotic, and results 
are proportionate in their beneficence to the extent to 
which the subject is hypnotised. It should however be 
remembered that a hypnotic state is not an essential 
condition. Where a perfect condition of faith exists 
in the subject, that is to say, where both his objective 
and subjective minds are in a receptive mood, the best 
results may be obtained without recourse to hypnosis. 
This is demonstrated in the cases of psychic healing 
which have occurred at such places as the shrine at 
Lourdes, and the sacred places of India. The persons 
cured at these places were seldom in a hypnotic state, 
but they had implicit faith both conscious and uncon- 
scious. 

It is obvious that the most successful results will be 
obtained where mental conditions are most favorable, 
just as in medical science success depends largely on 
favorable physical conditions. Hypnosis is most valu- 
able in cases where the objective mind of the patient 
is in accord with the idea of mental healing. In cases 
where the individual is not open to argument and will 
not be convinced as to the value of psychic healing it 
is generally essential that the objective mind be entirely 
suspended from the exercise of its functions during the 
period in which suggestions are given. 

Outside of persons who are absolutely convinced of 
the efficacy of mental healing the best results will be 
secured in the case of individuals who are not obsessed 



178 THE DUAL MIND 

by strong prejudices, but with an open mind are willing 
to submit to the treatment. All that is required from 
them is that they shall become passive, neither exerting 
their will in favor of nor against the operator, and be 
willing to exercise patience and perseverance. 

With persons of nervous temperament it is usually 
necessary to subject them to a course of training before 
a permanent cure can be effected. They must be 
gradually brought to the point where they will accept 
the belief that a cure is possible, and the day that they 
believe that without reservation, they will be practically 
cured. Everybody is normally open to suggestion, and 
opposition is caused through artificial barriers erected 
by fear, scepticism, or adverse influences. 

Every normal human being is influenced to a greater 
or less extent by the mental attitude of those around 
him. Environment plays a very important part in 
mental healing. A man's own faith may be perfect, but 
he will be seriously retarded in his efforts to reach 
health through psychic methods if he is constantly 
surrounded by persons who are sceptics. A man of 
strong character would be able to counteract these 
influences, but in the cases under consideration it is 
sick men who are being dealt with, and who naturally 
have not the same control over their mind and will 
as their healthier brethren. 

The physician, or other person who practises the art 
of mental healing will find that his labors bring their 
own reward. The suggestions of health and wellbeing, 
which he endeavors to convey to his patients, react 
favorably upon himself and tend unconsciously to bring 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 179 

about a highly desirable condition of perfect health. 
It is remarkable that, following a seance, a healer is 
usually able to indulge in a calm and dreamless sleep 
which is one of the first requisites to health. His sub- 
conscious mind receives the impressions which he has 
been attempting to convey to another mind and in 
endeavoring to put the commands into execution leaves 
the objective mind perfectly quiescent. In this way 
the exercise of power by the healer is never a tax upon 
his energies, but redounds to his benefit. The efforts 
of the successful healer are generally followed by a 
feeling of great physical exhaustion but this is the 
reverse of injurious, especially as he can at once restore 
his vitality by sound and pure sleep or entirely prevent 
this lassitude by previous auto suggestion. This ex- 
haustion is exactly in proportion to the extent of his 
success with his patients. 

In giving suggestions it is always to be remem- 
bered that it is not sufficient merely to present good 
suggestions to the mind of the patient but it is essential 
to remove bad ones. Persons of a hypochondriacal turn 
of mind must first be inculcated with a desire for health 
and a belief that they can gain it. Many persons who 
have suffered for a long time from some chronic trouble 
fall into a despondent state in which they not only 
believe that they will never be well again, but even lose 
their desire for health. Before any good results can 
be effected in such cases it is essential that this morbid 
condition be removed. Once the desire for health has 
been restored and strengthened, and the patient has 
been brought to believe that not only recovery is pos- 



i8o THE DUAL MIND 

sible but easy, the path of the healer has been freed 
from its greatest difficulties. 

The power of a healer increases in proportion as it 
is exercised. After he has obtained a moderate com- 
mand over his subjective mind he can do much to relieve 
the suffering of others, and his ability to do so will grow 
greater and greater with every success that he attains. 

It is not always necessary or desirable to attempt the 
education of a patient in the theories of mental ther- 
apeutics. Persons who have had no scientific training, 
and who are incapable of carrying out an investigation 
along scientific lines would be merely bewildered and 
thrown into a state of confusion by such treatment. 
Others would be brought to an argumentative frame 
of mind and would be placed in an adverse condition 
through their efforts to combat the arguments of the 
healer. Many people who would be unwilling to accept 
the theories on which mental therapeutics are based 
may still be cured by its agency. This is simply because 
mankind is so constituted that he will grasp at straws 
when he is drowning without troubling himself to 
reason that a straw cannot save him. 

That actual contact with the patient is not necessary 
to effect a cure is shown by the experiences of the school 
of mental healers who practise what is known as "absent 
treatment." Urider their system it is not even necessary 
to make any appeal to the objective mind of the patient. 
The healer sits alone and places himself in a partially 
hypnotic condition. He concentrates his mind upon 
the patient and addresses him as if he were present. He 
appeals telepathically to the patient's subjective mind 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND i8i 

and argues with him and makes suggestions to him in 
exactly the same manner that he would employ if the 
patient was actually sitting in front of him. 

There are obvious advantages to this system. The 
telepathic suggestions do not rise above the threshold 
of the patient's consciousness, but are made direct to 
the subjective mind which, being constantly amenable 
to control accepts them. It abandons the abnormal idea 
of disease and accepts the normal one of health. The 
patient is necessarily in a receptive condition for he is 
not aware of the telepathic suggestions, and receives 
them without any antagonism being aroused in his 
conscious ego. 

The only obstacle which exists to this method of 
treatment is a purely artificial one caused by our habits 
of thought. We have become so accustomed to regard- 
ing distance as a tangible thing that it is hard for us to 
realize that where the mind is concerned if does not 
exist. There is no reason why a man in India should 
not be able to communicate telepathically with a person 
in America, and there is no doubt that this can be ac- 
complished as soon as one has convinced himself that 
mentally there is no such thing as distance. The 
experience of the absent treatment school shows that in 
a majority of cases the best results have been reached 
where the patient was in absolute ignorance of the 
influence being exercised on his behalf. That the 
patient should be in ignorance is not a sine qua non 
but where he is himself aware that he is being treated, 
or his friends are cognisant of the fact there is always 
the danger of adverse suggestions exercising a malign 



i82 THE DUAL MIND 

influence either through his own scepticism, or that of 
those who form his environment. 

As a general rule healers refuse to give absent treat- 
ment to persons whom they have not seen although 
letters have been sufficient in some cases to establish 
the necessary communication. Usually treatment is 
given at an appointed hour and lasts from fifteen to 
thirty minutes. In instances where patients have re- 
ceived a personal treatment it is generally easy to 
establish communication at a distance. 

Concentration of mind and physical passivity are the 
two great achievements which must be sought for by 
the healer while passivity alone is required of the 
patient. It must moreover be always remembered 
that physical functions have an important bearing 
on success in reaching these goals. After a heavy 
meal, or where drinking has been indulged in, it 
is useless to attempt to produce any form of psychic 
phenomena. Physical temperance is essential, and 
abstinence from excess for a single day will not be 
sufficient. A regular course in restraint exercised over 
the physical appetit esjs necessary before the body and 
mind^an be brought into the harmony requisite for 
decided or unusu al res ults. This great principal is well 
recognized in the Orient where the savants endure long 
fasts and keep their physical passions and appetites 
under severe and constant restraint in order that their 
minds may reach that degree of detachment which is 
required for the highest development of the mental 
powers. 

There are certain schools of mental healers who pro- 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 183 

fess to cure all diseases and ailments by mental methods 
alone and prohibit the use of drugs or any other agency. 
This is not only wrong but often dangerous. One of 
the great sources of the power of drugs is that the 
patient believes in their efficacy and consequently is un- 
consciously practising mental healing. Where a patient 
believes in the value of material medical science he 
should always be permitted to indulge in that belief 
and there is no reason why mental healing should not 
be practised in perfect accord with material medicine. 

A famous London surgeon, who was not himself an 
adherent to the science of mental therapeutics, once 
related how he had cured an old woman of dyspepsia. 
He stated that he had examined his patient and found 
her to be a pronounced hypochondriac. She had, how- 
ever, unbounded faith in his skill and insisted upon his 
giving her a prescription. The doctor did not believe 
that he could give her any drug which would help her, 
so in order to get rid of her he had some pills com- 
pounded which consisted solely of sugar and water. 
He told the old lady to take two of these pills in a glass 
of water every night before going to bed, and assured 
her that she would soon be well. 

He forgot all about his patient and her queer pre- 
scription until a few weeks later when she reappeared 
and informed him with the greatest joy that she was 
nearly cured and demanded a fresh supply of the mar- 
velous pills. It was of course a simple matter of mental 
healing, but in this instance the faith of the patient 
was hinged on the skill of the doctor. The pills were 
the concrete sign on which her belief rested, and the 



i84 THE DUAL MIND 

result would have been the same no matter what the 
harmless ingredients might have been. 

The ill-directed zeal of enthusiasts has been respon- 
sible for much of the injury that the cause of mental 
healing has suffered, and the comparatively slow prog- 
ress that it has made. In theory mental therapeutics 
is capable of healing all the ills that flesh is heir to, but 
in practice this is far from being the case. If all man- 
kind was agreed upon the absolute infallibility of mental 
healing, and practised it with perfect faith and under- 
standing, there is little doubt that it would be but a 
short time before disease would practically vanish 
from the earth. Unfortunately this is a condition 
which is hardly likely to be realized in the present 
generation at all events, and in the meantime the 
field of usefulness of mental healing is comparatively 
limited but hard to define. It depends to a very 
large extent upon the individuality of the patient 
and also on that of the healer. It is not infre- 
quent to find a disease in one case incurable, which 
readily surrenders to the treatment in another. Its 
value in nervous diseases is definite and far-reaching, 
and it is the only reliable means to effect a cure in 
cases of hysteria and neurosis. 

Where severe hysterical conditions exist it is neces- 
sary that the patient be separated from his environment 
and kept under constant care during the cure, and when 
that is effected he must not return to his old associa- 
tions if they are adverse. 

It must not be imagined that hypnotic sleep is the 
most favorable condition for the reception of suggestion. 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 185 

On the contrary, the ideal condition is that of natural 
sleep. As perfect passivity is the first requisite for the 
reception of suggestions, and as passivity reaches its 
highest point during natural sleep, it necessarily follow^s 
that the latter is the best possible state in which to 
influence tlie patient. The subjective mind being at all 
times awake and alert, the patient is as susceptible to 
suggestion while slumbering naturally as when sleep is 
produced through hypnotic means. In the former state 
conditions are similar to those where the patient is 
treated by the absent method. In both the impressions 
do not rise above the threshold of the consciousness of 
the patient, and there is therefore no possibility of 
antagonism with the objective mind. 

The most perfect condition which can exist is where 
both the healer and the patient are enjoying natural 
sleep. This may sound strange and even impossible, 
but it is by no means so. The suggestion is made by 
the healer before he sleeps, and is carried out by his sub- 
jective mind during slumber when that faculty is in a 
condition to exert its greatest power. In order that 
these conditions should not be disturbed by physical 
causes it is necessary that with both healer and patient 
the processes of digestion should be as light as possible. 
They should both go to sleep after partaking very 
lightly of some easily digestible food. 

The healer must of course in the first place be 
possessed of an earnest desire to cure the patient. He 
should then, prior to going to sleep, concentrate his 
mind on the work he wishes it to do and direct his 
subconscious mind to employ itself during the hours of 



i86 THE DUAL MIND 

sleep in influencing the patient in the direction of health. 
Directions can be specific where the nature of the disease 
is known, but even if this information is not available 
the suggestion will still operate. A large amount of 
the detail can always be left to the marvellous intuitive 
powers of the subjective mind with a certainty of suc- 
cessful results. 

Nowhere can the power of suggestion and its attend- 
ant phenomena be observed to a greater degree, or 
under more favorable conditions, than in the case of 
children. The young child is almost entirely under the 
influence of its subjective mind. The objective mind 
is the product of growth and development and is 
in a purely embryonic state with the young. Every 
act, word, or gesture of an adult influences subcon- 
sciously the child who accepts it with the same blind 
faith as that shown by a person in a state of hypnosis. 

The first defi.nite tendencies which are noticeable in 
a child are hereditary. Next appear certain elementary 
intellectual qualities which are exercised in a purely 
unconscious manner. Love of parents, a sense of 
justice, a desire for knowledge may be noted. Later 
appears the moral senses, but all of these elements of 
character are going to be influenced for life by the sug- 
gestions which the child receives from the adults about 
it and its physical environment. Under such circum- 
stances it is hardly necessary to point out the tremendous 
importance of parents and others having the charge 
of children refraining from any action, language, or 
emotion which may have an invidious effect upon their 
charges. The effect of a violent display of anger on 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 187 

the part of an adult, for example, will have an evil and 
perhaps lasting influence over a child. On the other 
hand a child will unconsciously absorb a sense and 
power of restraint if he receives the proper suggestions 
from his guardians. 

As the suggestions which are given to a child will 
probably Influence its whole life and character, there 
can be no argument as to the vast importance of these 
suggestions being good ones. The great evil of in- 
temperance will probably never be entirely remedied 
until the cure is commenced with the training of the 
children. Repeated and continuous suggestions as to 
the evils and dangers of overindulgence in alcoholic 
liquors will have a greater effect in forming the habits 
and tastes of children in their later lives than all the 
laws which could ever be passed by all the legislatures 
of the world. 

An extremely common instance of the power of sug- 
gestion over the minds of children, and one that may 
be frequently observed among adults, is the manner in 
which they will unconsciously reproduce grimaces and 
gestures. A child at a circus, absorbed in the perform- 
ance of a clown, will unknowingly reproduce the grim- 
aces and gestures of the object of its absorption. This 
quite common phenomenon is none the less extremely 
curious and interesting. It may be often observed even 
among grown persons who are constantly under the full 
influence of their objective minds. A great actor can 
bring the tears to the eyes of his audience although they 
are fully aware that all that is passing before them is 
merely make-believe. The power of the suggestion of 



i88 THE DUAL MIND 

the artist is greater than the influence of their objective 
minds. 

Some remarkable instances of the power of sugges- 
tion have been collected and are vouched for by Pro- 
fessor Hudson. He relates instances where a strong 
purgative pill has been administered to a patient, and 
under the power of suggestion has not only failed of 
its effect but has actually caused sleep. The patient 
was of course influenced to believe that it was an opiate 
instead of a purgative. The experiment has been 
reversed and patients have been induced to take opium 
pills under the belief that they were purgatives with the 
result being precisely that of the suggestion. 

It is not an uncommon thing to find women and 
sometimes men who become ill from the scent of certain 
flowers, or the taste of certain perfectly harmless fruits. 
Cases have been known where strawberries produced 
on certain individuals the effects of violent poisoning, 
and women have been known to faint from the imagi- 
nary perfume of a bouquet which was artificial. Where 
such phenomena are observed it will generally be 
found that they are due to the power of suggestion, 
brought about in the first instance by the connection of 
the fiowers or fruit with a previous illness. Thus a 
man who has once fallen ill from eating bad straw- 
berries is liable to have afterwards a strong aversion 
to that fruit, and under certain conditions this aversion 
may be strong enough to cause sickness. Similarly a 
highly sensitive person may be taken sick at a time 
when the scent of roses is strong in her environment 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 189 

and afterwards be affected unpleasantly to a greater or 
less degree by the perfume of the rose. 

The exact influence which suggestion plays in in- 
fection is difficult to decide but it certainly enters 
largely into an individual's susceptibility to disease. 
There are numerous cases on record where men and 
women have gone through the most terrible epidemics 
scatheless, being perfectly convinced in their own minds 
that they could not contract the disease. This is most 
commonly observed in the instance of priests and re- 
ligious persons who profoundly believed that God 
would preserve them from harm. 

On the other hand it is well-known that nervous and 
imaginative people whose minds are being constantly 
influenced by the thoughts and fear of sickness are the 
most liable to fall a prey to it. In nervous ailments 
suggestion plays a very important part in spreading 
the ailment. The affliction known as St. Vitus's dance 
has been known to extend to every pupil in a girls 
school purely through the suggestion afforded by one 
girl becoming attacked. It was almost impossible to 
handle the situation until every pupil had been isolated 
when the trouble was stopped with comparative ease. 

An example of the power of suggestion in this con- 
nection which is familiar to every one may be found in 
the manner in which a yawn can be communicated. 
Under favorable conditions one person can set a room- 
ful of people yawning simply through telepathic sug- 
gestion which may or may not be unconscious. 

One of the most important phases of mental ther- 



iQo THE DUAL MIND 

apeutics is that a man who beHeves in the science can 
be his own physician without any aid from a second 
person. Auto suggestion is a powerful factor which 
can be used to great advantage not merely in curing 
disease but in preventing it. T he man who trains his 
mind to believe that he cannot con tract disease and 
persistently denies the adverse influence of an unpleas- 
ant symptom which may develop will have succeeded 
in gaining perfect health under normal conditions. 

Most persons can remember occasions under which 
they were suffering from some unpleasant sensation, 
such as toothache or headache, and were relieved 
simply through a more powerful suggestion being 
forced upon them. Thus, for example, a man suffering 
from a severe headache and with his thoughts naturally 
centered on his discomfort suddenly receives intelligence 
of an exceptionally exciting of fortunate event. Under 
the influence of the new emotions aroused by this in- 
formation he will usually forget entirely his ailment, 
and later on when the force of the new suggestion has 
subsided if he remembers at all his original suffering 
it will be merely to wonder what became of it. 

Another instance of physical pain disappearing under 
the influence of some powerful suggestion, which will 
be familiar to most people is in the case of injuries 
received while the recipient is under the domination of 
violent emotion. A man engaged in a fight, and over- 
come by his anger, will be almost oblivious to the pain 
arising from the blows he may receive. Under ordinary 
circumstances a blow in the face would be found to be a 
very painful injury, but where the mind is too fully 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 191 

occupied to have room for thoughts of pain, pain prac- 
tically does not exist. A more extreme example is 
found in warfare. It is well known that under the 
stress of the tremendous excitement of a battle a soldier 
will continue to fight ignoring the fact that he is fatally- 
injured or terribly maimed. 

These facts prove absolutely one thing. Pain is non- 
existent save as a creature of the mind. It necessarily 
follows that if a man has complete control over his mind 
he will be impervious to pain. Incidents and events 
which would ordinarily cause him suffering will be 
annulled by a powerful auto suggestion acting in pre- 
cisely the same manner as intense excitement or emotion. 

One of the first and most important laws for the 
student of mental therapeutics to remember is that the 
mind must be kept in a normally healthy attitude. All 
malign ^motions, such as hatred, envy, discontent, fear, 
melancholy, dejection7~^eact mjufiously upon the 
physical being. The^ reverse^ is equally true. The 
cheerful, contented man who is possessed with a keen 
desire for health has one hundred times more the resist- 
ing power to disease than his morbidly minded brother. 
Of course it is not an easy matter for any of us to be 
perpetually contented and cheerful but it is here that 
auto suggestion will lend powerful aid. If a man will 
continually persuade himself that his troubles are really 
of far less importance than they seem, that there are 
compensations even in the most apparently hopeless 
situations, he can educate himself to an equable mental 
balance, and in time will be master of his life and 
environment. Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander, or any 



192 THE DUAL MIND 

of the great masters of the world achieved their do- 
minion because in the first place they had conquered 
themselves. They had taught themselves to believe that 
all things were possible to them, and in that assurance 
they wrote their names in titanic letters across the 
history of the world. 

The novice in auto suggestion is frequently dis- 
couraged in his efforts and often abandons them because 
at the outset he has a lack of confidence. This is an 
obstacle which should be recognized and combated suc- 
cessfully. If, for instance, the beginner is suffering 
from a headache, he usually attempts to promulgate a 
suggestion in a half-hearted manner, and with a secret 
misgiving that he can do himself no good. Under such 
circumstances he probably will not. He must summon 
all his resolution to fight that misgiving, and by repeat- 
ing over and over to himself that his headache is 
ceasing, and finally that it has ceased, he will find that 
the victory will finally be his. More than that he will 
also discover that his next effort to use the power of 
suggestion will be much easier to put into effect, and 
with every succeeding instance his domination over 
himself will grow greater and greater until his mind 
sits enthroned as absolute sovereign. 

The power of suggestion to conquer disease has at 
present certain limits which, while indefinable are none 
the less definite. In another, and perhaps even more 
important direction, however, its powers are practically 
unlimited. While suggestion m a y fail some times to 
cure a certain disease, it is almost infallibkasj^means^f 
prevention. The man who is in any degree master of 



SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND 193 

himself can deny the power of disease to affect him 
and he will find that his denial is true. To maintain 
health it is necessary to keep the mind in the attitude 
of complete disbelief of the ability of any disease, to 
harm him. Whenever there is felt the premonition of 
approaching sickness a vigorous course of auto sug- 
gestion should be engaged in, and in this battle the 
mind will invariably emerge victor. 

Auto suggestion is as powerful for the eradication 
of bad habits as the suggestion of the hypnotist. 
Anyone who really desires to rid himself of some in- 
jurious habit can do so by the exercise of auto sugges- 
tion but it is first of all necessary that the desire be really 
existing and genuine. It very often happens that a man 
who is, for instance, a drunkard will have more or less 
frequent moments of remorse when he honestly wishes 
to obtain a mastery over his propensity for liquor. 
Unfortunately however this desire is not lasting or 
inherent but superimposed by the influence of others, 
or a momentary appreciation of the harm he is doing 
himself and those dependent upon him. To eradicate 
a bad habit it is first of all essential that the victim 
have a deep and ever-present desire to conquer the 
weakness. Under such circumstances he will find 
that auto suggestion is all-powerful. It cannot be 
emphasised too strongly that an early failure is 
no bar to ultimate success. If the subject finds 
that the power of suggestion fails the first time, or the 
first dozen times, he should not be discouraged. A man 
who for the greater part of his life has been accustomed 
to drift without ever really exercising his will power 



194 THE DUAL MIND 

must expect to encounter some difficulty when he first 
attempts to call his latent forces into being. It is simply 
a question as to whether he has so far depreciated his 
vital powers as to be unable to reanimate his enfeebled 
mind. In rare instances this may happen, where vicious 
living and age have completely wrecked the body and 
mind, but speaking generally it is in the power of every 
man to rehabilitate himself mentally and physically by 
persistent efforts of auto suggestion. 



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